2018 Ohio 4996
Ohio Ct. App.2018Background
- Jamie Crim pleaded guilty in 2016 to aggravated assault (reduced from felonious assault) and received community control sanctions (CCS).
- While on CCS, Crim was indicted in 2017 for theft-related offenses; he pleaded guilty to two counts of receiving stolen property (fourth-degree felonies) and one count of tampering with vehicle identification (fifth-degree felony) under a plea deal.
- The State moved to revoke Crim’s CCS in the 2016 case based on the 2017 guilty pleas; Crim admitted violating the CCS condition to obey the law.
- The trial court sentenced Crim to 18 months on each receiving-stolen-property count and 12 months on the tampering count, ordered those 2017 terms consecutive, revoked CCS in the 2016 case and imposed an 18-month term consecutive to the 2017 terms, for a total of 66 months.
- Crim appealed only the imposition of consecutive sentences, arguing the consecutive-service proportionality finding was unsupported by the record.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether consecutive sentences were disproportionate to Crim’s conduct | State: consecutive sentences were supported by the court’s findings and necessary given Crim’s history and conduct | Crim: consecutive service is disproportionate because the 2017 offenses were nonviolent theft crimes and earlier violent conduct had already resulted in community control | Court: affirmed — record supports the trial court’s proportionality finding under a deferential standard |
| Whether appellate court may reverse without clearly and convincingly finding the record fails to support findings | State: appellate reversal requires clear-and-convincing demonstration that record does not support findings | Crim: implicitly asks for closer proportionality scrutiny based on comparators and crime fit | Court: applied very deferential standard from Marcum and related case law and declined to reverse |
Key Cases Cited
- State v. Bonnell, 140 Ohio St.3d 209 (trial court must make statutory findings for consecutive sentences; appellate review requires findings be incorporated into journal entry)
- State v. Moore, 24 N.E.3d 1197 (discussing proportionality as whether sentence "fits the crime")
- State v. Marcum, 146 Ohio St.3d 516 (2016) (establishes very deferential standard of appellate review for felony sentences)