State v. Masters, 2017 Ohio 7482

Todd Masters pleaded guilty to felonious assault (second-degree felony) with a one-year firearm specification and to possessing a firearm in a liquor permit premises (fifth-degree felony).
Trial court originally sentenced Masters to a total of four years (one-year firearm spec consecutive, three years for assault) and placed the possession count on community control; this court previously vacated the consecutive community-control sentence and remanded for resentencing.
At resentencing the court again imposed a total four-year prison term (one-year firearm spec + three years assault) and sentenced the possession count to 12 months in prison to run concurrent to Count 2; postrelease control was imposed.
At resentencing the trial court ordered Masters to pay court costs and offered the option to perform community work service in prison to satisfy those costs; defense counsel objected and argued Masters was indigent and costs should be waived.
The trial court denied waiver, noted no certificate of indigency had been filed but the journal entry reflected indigency for purposes of appointed counsel, and allowed community service as the payment method rather than commissary deductions.
Masters appealed, challenging (1) statutory compliance in imposing costs and (2) that imposing costs violated his constitutional and statutory rights given his indigency.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court erred by imposing court costs without complying with R.C. 2947.23(A)(1)	State: Court properly imposed costs; statute does not bar costs when prison sentence is imposed and notification requirement applies only to community-control or nonresidential sanctions	Masters: Costs could not be imposed because court did not impose a nonresidential sanction and did not comply with statutory notice requirements	Court: Overruled — statute revisions limit the notice requirement to community-control/nonresidential sanctions; trial court properly imposed costs
Whether imposing court costs violated defendant's rights given indigency	State: Trial court has discretion to impose costs despite indigency and may provide alternative payment methods (community service)	Masters: Waiver required because he was indigent and the court found him indigent in the journal entry	Court: Overruled — finding of indigency for appointed counsel does not mandate waiver of costs; court acted within discretion and offered community service option

State v. Anderson, 62 N.E.3d 229 (Ohio App. 8th Dist. 2016) (considered whether community-control sanctions may be ordered consecutive to a prison term and guided remand in similar circumstances)