THE STATE EX REL. FULLER, APPELLANT, v. EPPINGER, WARDEN, APPELLEE.
No. 2017-1386
Supreme Court of Ohio
July 10, 2018
Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-2629
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State ex rel. Fuller v. Eppinger, Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-2629.] NOTICE This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published.
Mandamus—Statute corrects minimum sentence imposed in excess of the statutory limit by operation of law—Court of appeals’ dismissal of complaint affirmed.
(No. 2017-1386—Submitted January 23, 2018—Decided July 10, 2018.)
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Lorain County, No. 16CA010939.
Per Curiam.
{¶ 1} Appellant, Michael Fuller, appeals the dismissal of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus that he filed against appellee, LaShann Eppinger, warden of the Grafton Correctional Institution, where Fuller is incarcerated. We affirm.
Background
{¶ 2} In December 1990, Fuller was convicted of one count of robbery and two counts of aggravated burglary. The Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas sentenced Fuller to 3 to 15 years’ imprisonment for the robbery and 5 to 25 years’ imprisonment for the aggravated burglaries, all to be served concurrently. In October 1991, the trial court suspended Fuller‘s sentences and placed him on probation. While on probation, Fuller committed additional crimes. The trial court revoked his probation in 1992 and ordered the original sentence into execution.
{¶ 4} At the time of Fuller‘s convictions, the Ohio Revised Code placed a limit on consecutive indefinite terms of imprisonment:
Consecutive terms of imprisonment imposed shall not exceed:
* * *
(2) An aggregate minimum term of fifteen years * * * when the consecutive terms imposed are for felonies other than aggravated murder or murder.
{¶ 5} On direct appeal from his 1992 convictions, Fuller challenged his 25-year minimum sentence as a violation of
{¶ 6} On April 8, 2016, Fuller filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Ninth District Court of Appeals, arguing that he was entitled to immediate release because his aggregate minimum sentence for his 1992 convictions exceeded the allowable limit under
{¶ 7} On September 15, 2017, the Ninth District Court of Appeals granted Eppinger‘s motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim. Fuller appealed.
Analysis
{¶ 8} Habeas corpus is generally available only when the petitioner‘s maximum sentence has expired and he is being held unlawfully. Heddleston v. Mack, 84 Ohio St.3d 213, 214, 702 N.E.2d 1198 (1998). An inmate is not entitled to a writ of habeas corpus upon completion of his minimum sentence. State ex rel. Lockhart v. Sheldon, 146 Ohio St.3d 468, 2016-Ohio-627, 58 N.E.3d 1124, ¶ 5. Fuller‘s entire argument appears to be based on a misunderstanding of the difference between an aggregate minimum sentence and an aggregate maximum sentence.
{¶ 9} Given that Fuller has not completed his aggregate maximum sentence, the court of appeals correctly dismissed his petition for failure to state a claim.
Judgment affirmed.
O‘CONNOR, C.J., and O‘DONNELL, KENNEDY, FRENCH, FISCHER, and DEWINE, JJ., concur.
DEGENARO, J., not participating.
Michael Fuller, pro se.
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Maura O‘Neill Jaite, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.