State v. Dowdy, 2019 Ohio 3570

Defendant Shaun Dowdy pleaded guilty in 2013 to aggravated murder (with a three-year firearm specification) and kidnapping.
Trial court sentenced aggravated murder to “20 years to life,” the firearm spec to 3 years, and kidnapping to 10 years, ordered consecutively for an aggregate “33 years to life.”
Dowdy moved to correct what he alleged were void sentences; the trial court granted the motion in part and denied it in part.
On appeal Dowdy challenged (1) the aggravated murder sentence as unauthorized by R.C. 2929.03(A) and (2) the kidnapping sentence as void for failing to initially impose postrelease control.
This panel followed State v. Smith and held that a sentence phrased as “20 years to life” for aggravated murder was not authorized by the statute, vacating that sentence and remanding for resentencing on that count.
The court upheld the trial court’s correction of postrelease control for the kidnapping conviction under R.C. 2929.191 and declined to order de novo resentencing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Dowdy’s aggravated-murder sentence of “20 years to life” was unauthorized/void	The wording has the same practical effect as statutory “life with parole eligibility after 20 years”	The phrasing is not authorized by R.C. 2929.03(A); therefore the sentence is void	Vacated aggravated-murder sentence; remanded for resentencing (court follows State v. Smith)
Whether kidnapping sentence was void for not originally including postrelease control and whether de novo resentencing was required	Trial court properly corrected the omission under R.C. 2929.191 and imposed postrelease control at the correction hearing	Trial court should have resentenced de novo (argues Fischer was wrongly decided)	Overruled defendant; postrelease control correction was proper and no de novo resentencing required

State v. Fischer, 942 N.E.2d 332 (Ohio 2010) (approved procedure for correcting postrelease-control omissions under R.C. 2929.191)
State v. Holdcroft, 1 N.E.3d 382 (Ohio 2013) (discussed R.C. 2929.191 correction authority and hearing requirements)