State v. Mims

Citations

• 2023 Ohio 1044

Syllabus

Felonious assault R.C. 2903.11(A)(2) firearm specification R.C. 2941.141(A) jail-time credit mandatory prison term R.C. 2929.14(B)(1)(b) judicial discretion COVID coronavirus indigency equal protection judicial release App.R. 5(C) R.C. 2945.67 ripeness justiciability jurisdiction. Where the defendant pleaded guilty to felonious assault with a one-year firearm specification, the trial court's application of jail-time credit to the mandatory term imposed on the specification was contrary to law under the plain language of R.C. 2929.14(B)(1)(b) and following State v. Moore, 154 Ohio St.3d 94, 2018-Ohio-3237, 111 N.E.3d 1146. However well-intentioned a trial court may be in crafting a criminal sentence, it has no discretion to impose a sentence that is contrary to law. Moreover, the Supreme Court in Moore rejected the defendant's equal-protection argument, which was essentially that he, because of his indigency, would lose jail-time credit if he were granted judicial release at the earliest opportunity where a nonindigent defendant would not. We found the state's appeal to be ripe and determined that we have jurisdiction to consider the appeal. The defendant had argued that the appeal would only be ripe if he were granted judicial release, but the state's appeal is constitutionally and prudentially justiciable now. Finally, the fact that the trial court phrased its application of jail-time credit as a \request\ does not prevent our court from having jurisdiction. The trial court made a \request\ as to something that is not within the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's discretion, since the request went to the imposition of sentence itself. Sentence reversed in part, modified to delete the trial court's application of jail-time credit to the mandatory prison term imposed on the specification.