State v. Weeks, 2021 Ohio 3735

Defendant Myron Weeks pled guilty in August 2019 to multiple offenses and was sentenced in September 2019 to two years of community control under probation supervision (mental health/DD unit).
A capias issued February 3, 2020 after probation reported Weeks had not been seen; at a February 20, 2020 hearing the court was told Weeks had been shot, had contacted probation, completed an outpatient assessment, and was about to start IOP; the capias was recalled and community control continued.
On December 12, 2020 the trial court, sua sponte, terminated Weeks’s community control and waived costs and supervision fees without prior notice to the prosecutor or a hearing.
The State appealed, arguing the court lacked authority to terminate community control outside R.C. 2929.15(C) and that the State was denied notice and an opportunity to be heard.
The appellate court concluded the lack of notice/hearing (per State v. Heinz) was dispositive, vacated the termination, reinstated community control, and remanded for further proceedings.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the trial court erred by terminating community control without making the R.C. 2929.15(C) findings	Trial: Court failed to make required "significant period" and "exemplary manner" findings before early termination	Weeks: Implicitly contended early termination was appropriate based on compliance (and did not contest merits on appeal)	Moot — appellate court did not decide merits after resolving notice issue
Whether the trial court erred by sua sponte terminating community control without notice or an opportunity for the State to be heard	Trial: Prosecutor entitled to notice and opportunity to be heard; sua sponte termination denied that right	Weeks: Conceded the State was not given notice and that termination without notice was inappropriate	Sustained — court abused discretion; vacated termination, reinstated community control, remanded

State v. Heinz, 146 Ohio St.3d 374 (Ohio 2016) (prosecutor entitled to notice and opportunity to be heard in community-control proceedings)
State v. Raber, 134 Ohio St.3d 350 (Ohio 2012) (trial courts generally lack authority to reconsider final criminal judgments absent statutory authority)
State v. Carlisle, 131 Ohio St.3d 127 (Ohio 2011) (absent statutory authority, court cannot modify criminal sentence by reconsidering final judgment)
State ex rel. White v. Junkin, 80 Ohio St.3d 335 (Ohio 1997) (same principle limiting trial-court reconsideration of final criminal judgments)