State v. Triplett, 2011 Ohio 4628

Triplett was convicted in 2010 of two first-degree felonies: aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary.
The trial court sentenced him to eight years on each count, to be served concurrently, following the state's plea recommendations.
Triplett timely appealed alleging a failure to inform him about mandatory post-release control at sentencing.
The court informed him he “may” be subject to post-release control, not that it was mandatory to impose it.
Triplett argued his sentence should be reconsidered as non-minimal and challenged post-release control under Double Jeopardy.
The court remanded for resentencing to properly notify him about post-release control; it also addressed issues of sentencing discretion, double jeopardy, and merging allied offenses.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Post-release control notice was mandatory	Triplett asserts failure to advise of mandatory post-release control.	Triplett’s position is that he was not properly informed.	Remand for valid sentencing hearing to provide notice.
Whether a non-minimal sentence was improper	Triplett challenges the non-minimal sentence.	Courts have discretion within the statutory range and the sentence was jointly recommended.	Within-range, jointly recommended sentence not reviewable under R.C. 2953.08(D)(1).
Post-release control violative of Double Jeopardy	Post-release control constitutes double punishment.	Post-release control is part of the actual sentence.	Not a Double Jeopardy issue; permissible as part of sentence.
Merger of aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary	Counts are allied offenses; should have merged.	No plain error given settled law at sentencing; Johnson later changed law but not applied retroactively here.	Plain error not shown; argument waived; appellate review limited.

State v. Jordan, 104 Ohio St.3d 21 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2004) (mandatory post-release control notification; superseded on other grounds)
State v. Fischer, 128 Ohio St.3d 92 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2010) (void portion corrected; post-release control guidance)
State v. Johnson, 128 Ohio St.3d 153 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2010) (merger test for criminal convictions)
State v. Ketterer, 111 Ohio St.3d 70 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2006) (aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery not allied offenses)
State v. Reynolds, 80 Ohio St.3d 670 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1998) (not allied offenses of similar import)
State v. Williams, 74 Ohio St.3d 569 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1996) (not allied offenses of similar import)
State v. Barnes, 25 Ohio St.3d 203 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1986) (classic allied-offenses analysis)
State v. Frazier, 58 Ohio St.2d 253 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1979) (earlier allied offenses framework)
Woods v. Telb, 89 Ohio St.3d 504 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2000) (post-release control as part of sentence; double jeopardy discussion)
State v. Baker, 119 Ohio St.3d 197 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2008) (sentencing/fischer compliance context)