State v. Gray, 2017 Ohio 7969

Cody Gray was indicted on rape (1st-degree) and sexual battery (3rd-degree); he pleaded guilty to sexual battery and State moved to nolle prosequi the rape count.
The trial court sentenced Gray to 24 months imprisonment, restitution, and Tier III sex-offender classification; judgment entry filed March 9, 2017.
On March 20, 2017 Gray filed a post-sentence Crim.R. 32.1 motion to withdraw his guilty plea; the trial court made no ruling on that motion before the appeal was filed.
Gray filed a notice of appeal (April 6, 2017) and argued the plea was based on incorrect information from counsel; the State moved to dismiss the appeal for lack of a final, appealable order.
The Court of Appeals found the trial court had not ruled on the motion (so no final order on the post-sentence withdrawal motion) and dismissed the appeal as premature, remanding for the trial court to rule on the pending motion or R.C. 2953.21 petition.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the appellate court may hear Gray’s claim that the trial court erred in denying his post-sentence motion to withdraw his guilty plea when the trial court has not ruled on the motion	Dismiss for lack of jurisdiction because no final, appealable order exists; trial court has not ruled	Trial court implicitly overruled the motion by failing to rule; appeal filed to protect appellate rights and seek relief/stay	Appeal dismissed as premature for lack of a final order; matter remanded for trial court to decide the motion

State ex rel. Cassels v. Dayton City School Dist. Bd. of Education, 69 Ohio St.3d 217 (1994) (recognizes presumption that unruled pretrial motions are deemed overruled when court renders a final judgment.)