State v. Turner, 2021 Ohio 2216

Turner was convicted by a jury of purposeful murder (with a firearm specification), felony murder (with firearm specification), felonious assault, tampering with evidence, and improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle.
The trial court merged the murder/assault counts and sentenced Turner on purposeful murder: 15 years to life plus a consecutive 3-year firearm term; concurrent shorter terms produced an aggregate 18 years to life.
On direct appeal this court reversed the purposeful-murder conviction for failure to give a reckless-homicide lesser-included instruction, affirmed the other convictions, and remanded for further proceedings.
After a 19-month post-remand delay and Turner’s motion to dismiss for violation of his speedy-trial right, the trial court denied dismissal and resentenced Turner on felony murder (merged with felonious assault) to 15 years to life plus the 3-year firearm term, again totaling 18 years to life.
Turner appealed, arguing (1) this court’s prior opinion mandated a retrial rather than resentencing, (2) he was never convicted/sentenced on felony murder/felonious assault so resentencing was improper, (3) reckless homicide is a lesser-included of felony murder so retrial was required, and (4) the post-remand delay violated his Sixth Amendment speedy-trial right.

Issue	State's Argument	Turner's Argument	Held
Whether this court’s prior opinion mandated a retrial	Prior opinion did not require retrial; it merely noted double-jeopardy would not bar retrying	Prior opinion required retrial because purposeful-murder conviction was reversed	Court: No retrial mandated; prior opinion merely left retrying as an option
Whether resentencing on merged felony murder and felonious assault was permissible	Guilty verdicts for those offenses remained intact after merger and were available for resentencing	Resentencing improper because Turner had no prior conviction/sentence for felony murder or felonious assault	Court: Permissible to resentence on merged offenses; convictions remained and could be resentenced
Whether reckless homicide is a lesser-included offense of felony murder, requiring retrial	Reckless homicide is not a lesser-included of felony murder	Reckless homicide is a lesser-included of felony murder; failure to instruct requires retrial	Court: Reckless homicide is not a lesser-included offense of felony murder (Owens controls)
Whether the post-remand delay violated Turner’s Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial (speedy-resentencing)	Delay was not prejudicial because the State would elect felony murder and result would be same 18-to-life term; Turner thus suffered no prejudice	Delay violated speedy-trial rights and required dismissal or retrial	Court: No prejudicial violation; delay not grounds for relief because resentencing outcome was inevitable

State v. Owens, 166 N.E.3d 1142 (Ohio 2020) (holding reckless homicide is not a lesser-included offense of felony murder)
Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514 (1972) (establishing speedy-trial balancing test)
State v. Whitfield, 922 N.E.2d 182 (Ohio 2010) (merger for sentencing does not erase the jury’s determination of guilt for allied offenses)
State v. Evans, 291 N.E.2d 466 (Ohio 1973) (new judicial rules apply to cases pending on announcement date)
State v. Lynn, 214 N.E.2d 226 (Ohio 1966) (retroactivity principles for new rules)
Ali v. State, 819 N.E.2d 687 (Ohio 2004) (application of new appellate rules to nonfinal cases)
State v. Eads, 968 N.E.2d 118 (Ohio App. 2011) (discussing application of new rules to pending appeals)