State v. Shirilla

Citations

• 2026 Ohio 830

Syllabus

Postconviction relief; jurisdiction; timeliness; trial transcript; 365-day deadline; leap year; juvenile court; bindover; hearing; probable cause; direct appeal; equitable tolling; anniversary date; subject-matter jurisdiction; statutory construction; filing date; supplemental transcript; de novo review. The trial court dismissed appellant's petition for postconviction relief, which was denied for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction because of untimeliness. The central dispute involves the calculation of the mandatory 365-day filing period established by R.C. 2953.21(A)(2)(a). The appellant contends that the filing was timely because the statutory clock should have been triggered by the later filing of juvenile bindover transcripts rather than the initial trial transcripts. Furthermore, the appellant argues that the \anniversary date\ of the transcript filing should control the deadline, effectively asserting that the occurrence of a leap year should not result in a filing period that is one day shorter than a full calendar year. The filing of a postconviction petition is a jurisdictional act. Because the appellant filed the petition on the 366th day following the filing of the trial transcript, the trial court was without jurisdiction to consider the merits of the claims, and the application of equitable tolling is prohibited in the context of this jurisdictional bar.