State v. Welch, 2014 Ohio 695

Lee Welch was convicted after a bench trial of multiple sexual offenses against his daughter, including 12 counts of rape, kidnapping, and sexual battery, among others.
This court affirmed the convictions in State v. Welch (Welch I) but held rape and sexual battery were allied offenses and remanded for merger and resentencing.
On remand the state elected to merge the sexual battery counts into the rape counts; the trial court resentenced Welch to three years on each of the 12 rape counts to run consecutively (36 years total). Other counts remained concurrent.
Welch appealed his resentencing, raising two assignments of error: (1) consecutive sentences were contrary to the record; (2) the trial court failed to give reasons supporting consecutive sentences.
The trial court had found the statutory requirements for consecutive sentences satisfied, including that the harm from multiple rapes was so great or unusual that consecutive terms were necessary.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether consecutive sentences were supported by the record	State: trial court made required findings under R.C. 2929.14(C)(4) and record supports them	Welch: trial court’s consecutive findings were not supported by the record	Affirmed — appellate court deferred to trial court and held record did not clearly and convincingly fail to support the findings
Whether trial court was required to state reasons for imposing consecutive sentences	State: court may explain rationale but need not state reasons beyond required findings	Welch: court erred by not giving reasons to support consecutive findings	Affirmed — no requirement to provide explanatory reasons separate from statutory findings; court did discuss its rationale and findings met statutory requirements

Kalish, 120 Ohio St.3d 23 (Ohio 2008) (appellate review standard for felony sentencing; discussion of R.C. 2953.08 and sentencing review)