888 N.E.2d 479 | Ohio Ct. App. | 2008
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{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, Steven Schmitt, appeals the judgment of the Mercer County Court of Common Pleas resentencing him to notify him of postrelease control. On appeal, appellant asserts that the trial court could not impose postrelease control at a later date; that when postrelease control is not imposed during the original sentencing, a defendant is not subject to postrelease control; that if postrelease control may be imposed at a later date, the trial court must conduct a new sentencing hearing; that the state waived the issue of postrelease control by failing to appeal it; and that R.C.
{¶ 2} In April 2005, the Mercer County Grand Jury indicted Schmitt for one count of felonious assault in violation of R.C.
{¶ 3} In June 2005, Schmitt withdrew his not-guilty plea and entered a negotiated plea of guilty to the second felonious assault count in exchange for a dismissal of the first count.1 *604
{¶ 4} In August 2005, the trial court sentenced Schmitt to a four-year prison term. The trial court failed to include any information about postrelease control in its judgment entry of sentencing.
{¶ 5} In March 2006, the trial court sua sponte issued a nunc pro tunc entry, in which it provided that Schmitt "may be required to serve a period of postrelease control under the supervision of the parole board."
{¶ 6} In April 2006, the trial court rescinded its March 2006 nunc pro tunc entry, noting that it had reviewed the sentencing hearing record and determined that it had failed to notify Schmitt about postrelease control at that time.
{¶ 7} In May 2007, Schmitt moved for judicial release and requested a hearing.
{¶ 8} In June 2007, the trial court held a judicial-release hearing and denied judicial release. At the hearing, the state orally moved the trial court to notify Schmitt about postrelease control pursuant to R.C.
{¶ 9} In July 2007, the trial court issued a judgment entry correcting the judgment of conviction concerning postrelease control.
{¶ 10} It is from this judgment that Schmitt appeals, presenting the following assignments of error for our review.
If a trial court does not advise a defendant at sentencing that post release control is or may be imposed, it may not do so at a later date.
When a trial court does not impose post release control at sentencing, the appropriate action is to rule that the defendant is not subject to post release control.
If a trial court is authorized to impose post release control at a later time when it failed to do so at the original sentencing, the proper procedure is a new, complete sentencing hearing.*605
If no direct appeal of the original sentencing of appellant was taken by the state, it may not now ask the court to impose post release control.
ORC2929.191 is unconstitutional for violation of the single subject Rule 11 [sic] of the Ohio Constitution and in violation of the Due Process and Double Jeopardy Clauses of the United States and Ohio Constitutions.
{¶ 11} Due to the nature of Schmitt's assignments of error, we elect to address his assignments of error out of order and his first and second assignments of error together.
{¶ 13} Generally, "[o]nce a sentence has been executed, the trial court loses jurisdiction to amend or modify the sentence." State v. Carr, 3d Dist. Nos. 14-05-18 to 14-05-50,
{¶ 14} R.C.
{¶ 15} Further, the court has held that a trial court's failure to properly notify an offender about postrelease control is contrary to law and constitutes a void sentence and, therefore, falls under the first exception noted above. Jordan,
{¶ 16} Moreover, such a resentencing does not violate finality or double-jeopardy restraints, because jeopardy does not attach to a void sentence. Jordan,
{¶ 17} In response to the Supreme Court of Ohio's holdings above, the General Assembly enacted R.C.
(A)(1) If, prior to the effective date of this section, a court imposed a sentence including a prison term of a type [requiring mandatory post-release control] and failed to notify the offender pursuant to that division that the offender will be supervised under [R.C.
2967.28 ] after the offender leaves prison or to include a statement to that effect in the judgment of conviction entered on the journal or in the sentence pursuant to [R.C.2929.14 (F)(1)], at any time before the offender is released from imprisonment under that term and at a hearing conducted in accordance with division (C) of this section, the court may prepare and issue a correction to the judgment of conviction that includes in the judgment of conviction the statement that the offender will be supervised under [R.C.2967.28 ] after the offender leaves prison.3* * *
(2) If a court prepares and issues a correction to a judgment of conviction as described in division (A)(1) of this section before the offender is released from imprisonment under the prison term the court imposed prior to the effective date of this section, the court shall place upon the journal of the court an entry nunc pro tunc4 to record the correction to the judgment of conviction and shall provide a copy of the entry to the offender or, if the offender is not physically present at the hearing, shall send a copy of the entry to the department of rehabilitation and correction for delivery to the offender.5 * * * The court's placement upon the journal of the entry nunc pro tunc before the offender is released from imprisonment under the term shall be considered, and shall have the same effect, as if the court at the time of original sentencing had included the statement in the sentence and the judgment of conviction entered on the journal and had notified the offender that the offender will be so supervised *608 regarding a sentence [requiring mandatory post-release control] or that the offender may be so supervised regarding a sentence [requiring discretionary post-release control].
* * *
(C) On and after the effective date of this section, a court that wishes to prepare and issue a correction to a judgment of conviction of a type described in division (A)(1) or (B)(1) of this section shall not issue the correction until after the court has conducted a hearing in accordance with this division. Before a court holds a hearing pursuant to this division, the court shall provide notice of the date, time, place, and purpose of the hearing to the offender who is the subject of the hearing * * *. At the hearing, the offender and the prosecuting attorney may make a statement as to whether the court should issue a correction to the judgment of conviction.
Thus, under R.C.
{¶ 18} Here, Schmitt was convicted of one count of felonious assault in violation of R.C.
{¶ 19} Alternatively, Schmitt argues that resentencing him after State v. Foster,
{¶ 20} Accordingly, we overrule Schmitt's first and second assignments of error.
{¶ 22} We note at the outset that Foster
is inapplicable to Schmitt's argument because it only briefly addressed the issue of waiver and rejected the state's argument that Foster had waived an issue. See
{¶ 23} In the case sub judice, it is clear that a trial court's failure to notify a defendant about postrelease control at the time of the original sentencing as statutorily mandated renders the sentence void. See Jordan,
{¶ 24} Accordingly, we overrule Schmitt's fourth assignment of error.
{¶ 26} As noted above, R.C.
{¶ 27} Here, the trial court conducted a resentencing hearing pursuant to R.C.
{¶ 28} Moreover, we note that R.C.
{¶ 29} Accordingly, we sustain Schmitt's third assignment of error, vacate the July 2007 corrective entry, and remand the cause to the trial court with instructions to conduct a de novo resentencing hearing before Schmitt's prison term expires in order to impose a new sentence for his offense and to notify him of the mandatory three-year period of postrelease control.
{¶ 31} Statutes are presumed to be constitutional. State v. Hayden,
{¶ 32} The one-subject rule is set forth in Section
{¶ 33} However, to avoid interference with the legislative process, a court's role in enforcing the one-subject rule is limited. Id. at ¶ 27. Thus, "`[t]he mere fact that a bill embraces more than one topic is not fatal, as long as a common purpose or relationship exists between the topics.'" State ex rel. Ohio Academy of TrialLawyers v. Sheward (1999),
{¶ 34} Here, Schmitt first argues that R.C.
{¶ 35} Next, Schmitt argues that R.C.
{¶ 36} Accordingly, we overrule Schmitt's fifth assignment of error.
{¶ 37} Having found no error prejudicial to the appellant herein, in the particulars assigned and argued in his first, second, fourth, and fifth assignments of error, but having found error prejudicial to the appellant herein, in the particulars assigned and argued in his third assignment of error, we affirm in part and reverse in part, and remand the cause to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Judgment affirmed in part and reversed in part, and cause remanded.
SHAW, P.J., and PRESTON, J., concur.