STATE OF OHIO, Appellee, - vs - CHARLES A. WHITED, Appellant.
CASE NO. CA2018-04-079
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS TWELFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO BUTLER COUNTY
1/7/2019
[Cite as State v. Whited, 2019-Ohio-18.]
CRIMINAL APPEAL FROM BUTLER COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS Case No. CR2014-02-0243
Krista M. Gieske, 810 Sycamore Street, 3rd Floor, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, for appellant
HENDRICKSON, P.J.
{1} Appellant, Charles A. Whited, appeals from the revocation of his community control, arguing the Butler County Court of Common Pleas erred by only awarding him 28 days of jail-time credit. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse the trial court‘s judgment to the extent it failed to properly award jail-time credit and remand the matter for the recalculation of said credit.
{2} On February 19, 2014, appellant was indicted on three counts of trafficking in
{3} In February 2015, appellant‘s probation officer filed a notice that appellant violated his community control by failing to report to his supervising officer. Appellant had not seen his probation officer since October 22, 2014. Upon the filing of this notice, the trial court issued a warrant for appellant‘s arrest. Appellant was apprehended January 7, 2016.1 Thereafter, the court found appellant violated his community control. On February 10, 2016, the trial court continued appellant‘s community control with the additional requirement that appellant successfully complete the Community Correctional Center (“CCC“) program and recommended aftercare.
{4} In January 2017, appellant‘s probation officer filed a second notice that appellant had violated the terms of his community control. The notice alleged appellant had failed to appear for a scheduled appointment with probation and his whereabouts had been unknown until he was arrested on the violation on December 19, 2016.2 The notice further alleged appellant failed a drug screen by testing positive for marijuana and appellant had been unsuccessfully discharged from a treatment program at Community Behavioral Health. The court ultimately found appellant had violated his community control. On January 11,
{5} On March 20, 2018, a third notice that appellant had violated the terms of his community control was filed. The notice alleged appellant failed to report to probation as ordered, admitted he would test positive for marijuana, failed to comply with a payment agreement, was unsuccessfully discharged from treatment at Community Behavioral Health, and had failed to re-engage in treatment as recommended. The court found appellant violated his community control, and on April 11, 2018, the court revoked appellant‘s community control. The court ordered appellant to serve 180 days in prison on each underlying trafficking in drugs conviction and ordered that the prison terms be served consecutively for an aggregate of 360 days. The trial court gave appellant 28 days of jail-time credit for the time he spent in jail from his March 15, 2018 arrest on the third community control violation until he was sentenced on April 11, 2018. The court expressly denied appellant‘s request to receive jail-time credit for time appellant spent at CCC after his first community control violation, stating that the 360-day sentence imposed was “a sanction under House Rule 49[.] * * * It‘s not really a prison sentence; it‘s a sanction even though he is going to prison. So I don‘t think that he gets credit towards that 360-day sentence.”
{6} Appellant timely appealed his sentence, raising the following as his sole assignment of error:
{7} THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT FAILED TO PROPERLY CALCULATE THE CORRECT NUMBER OF DAYS OF JAIL-TIME CREDIT TO WHICH [APPELLANT] WAS ENTITLED AND IN FAILING TO INCORPORATE SAID DAYS INTO ITS SENTENCING ENTRY.
{8} In his sole assignment of error, appellant argues the trial court erred by failing to award him jail-time credit for all the time he spent in confinement as required by
{9} The state, however, disputes that appellant is entitled to additional jail-time credit, contending that the trial court “retains inherent authority as to the awarding [sic] of jail time credit, specifically in regard to community control sanctions” in accordance with
{10} We begin our analysis by addressing the state‘s argument that the issue of jail-time credit is moot. The Ohio Supreme Court has determined that once an offender has completed his prison sentence, any alleged error relating to the calculation of jail-time credit becomes moot as there is no longer an existing case or controversy. State ex rel. Compton v. Sutula, 132 Ohio St.3d 35, 2012-Ohio-1653, ¶ 5, citing State ex rel. Gordon v. Murphy, 112 Ohio St.3d 329, 2006-Ohio-6572, ¶ 6; and Crase v. Bradshaw, 108 Ohio St.3d 212, 2006-Ohio-663, ¶ 5 (“appeal is moot because his sentence has now expired and he has been released from prison“). This court has consistently applied the mootness doctrine to the issue of jail-time credit, recognizing that once a defendant has completed a stated prison term, there is no relief that can be provided to the defendant on appeal even if the trial court had erred in the calculation of jail-time credit. See State v. Williams, 12th Dist. Butler Nos. CA2018-01-012 and CA2018-01-013, 2018-Ohio-3989, ¶¶ 11-14; State v. Rhymer, 12th Dist. Butler No. CA2018-01-014, 2018-Ohio-2669, ¶¶ 8-11; State v. Hiler, 12th Dist. Butler No. CA2015-05-084, 2015-Ohio-5200, ¶ 20-21. We have determined that the fact that a defendant was placed on postrelease control following his release from prison does not prevent application of the mootness doctrine, as any jail-time credit the defendant was entitled to receive for the underlying offense would not reduce the length of the prison term that could be imposed for a violation of postrelease control. See State v. Burns, 12th Dist. Clermont No. CA2018-03-015, 2018-Ohio-4657, ¶ 22.
{11} In the present case, appellant was sentenced to a 360-day prison term on April 11, 2018, with 28 days of credit. Although appellant‘s stated prison term does not expire until March 9, 2019, records from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction indicate appellant was released from prison on June 20, 2018, placed on “DP&CS transitional control/treatment transfer,” and is scheduled to remain supervised for a period of one year.4
{12}
{13} Given that appellant is considered to be “in custody” while on transitional control and is subject to a return to prison for a violation of his transitional control, we find that the issue of jail-time credit remains a live controversy subject to our review. The state‘s argument that the issue is moot is therefore without merit.
{14} Turning to the issue of jail-time credit, we begin our analysis by noting that “[a]lthough the [department of rehabilitation and corrections] has a mandatory duty pursuant to
{16} A “community control sanction” is defined by
{17}
(B)(1) If the conditions of a community control sanction are violated *** the sentencing court may impose upon the violator one or more of the following penalties:
***
(c) A prison term on the offender pursuant to section 2929.14 of the Revised Code and division (B)(3) of this section, provided that a prison term imposed under this division is subject to the following limitations, as applicable:
(i) If the prison term is imposed for any technical violation of the conditions of a community control sanction imposed for a felony of the fifth degree or for any violation of law committed while under a community control sanction imposed for such a felony that consists of a new criminal offense and that is not a felony, the prison term shall not exceed ninety days.
(ii) If the prison term is imposed for any technical violation of the conditions of a community control sanction imposed for a felony of the fourth degree that is not an offense of violence and is not a sexually oriented offense or for any violation of law committed while under a community control sanction imposed for such a felony that consists of a new criminal offense and that is not a felony, the prison term shall not exceed one hundred eighty days.
{18} The prison term that is imposed on a violator pursuant to
{19} Appellant, however, argues that
The department of rehabilitation and correction shall reduce the stated prison term of a prisoner or, if the prisoner is serving a term for which there is parole eligibility, the minimum and maximum term or the parole eligibility date of the prisoner by the total number of days that the prisoner was confined for any reason arising out of the offense for which the prisoner was convicted and sentenced, including confinement in lieu of bail while awaiting trial, confinement for examination to determine the prisoner‘s competence to stand trial or sanity, confinement while awaiting transportation to the place where the prisoner is to serve the prisoner‘s prison term, as determined by the sentencing court under division (B)(2)(g)(i) of section 2929.19 of the Revised Code, and confinement in a juvenile facility. The department of rehabilitation and correction also shall reduce the stated prison term of a prisoner or, if the prisoner is serving a term for which there is parole eligibility, the minimum and maximum term or the parole eligibility date of the prisoner by the total number of days, if any, that the prisoner previously served in the custody of the department of rehabilitation and correction arising out of the offense for which the prisoner was convicted and sentenced.
(Emphasis added.)6
{20} A number of courts have examined the language set forth in
{21} As the Third District explained when looking at
R.C. 2929.15(B) provides that if there has been a community control violation, and the trial court imposes a longer sanction, a more restrictive sanction, or a prison term, the court may, in its discretion, grant additional credit for time that the offender successfully spent under the original sanction. This provision*** allows the trial court to grant credit in excess of time served in confinement; however, it does not affect the mandatory requirement that credit still must be granted for all time served in confinement. As it was prior to the enactment of R.C. 2929.15(B), time served by an offender in confinement is required to be credited against a subsequent prison term. R.C. 2967.191. Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 103 S.Ct. 2064 (1983).
{22} We agree with the rationale expressed above.7 Contrary to the state‘s
{23} In reaching this determination, we find it necessary to address our holding in State v. Dunaway, 2002-Ohio-2316. In 1999, the defendant in Dunaway, pled guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol in violation of
[The defendant] shall be incarcerated in the Clermont County Jail for a period of six months, or until he is accepted into the [community based correctional facility (“CBCF“)], whichever first occurs. If accepted into the CBCF, [the defendant] shall participate in and successfully complete all available programming * * * [the defendant] shall remain in the CBCF for a period of six months or until he has successfully completed all the programming, whichever first occurs. If not accepted into the CBCF, he shall be incarcerated in the Clermont County Jail for a period of twelve months.
Id. at ¶ 2-3.
{24} The defendant spent some time in jail before being placed into the CBCF on December 10, 1999. Id. at ¶ 4. He was released from the CBCF on May 3, 2000 and was
{25} The defendant challenged the court‘s calculation of jail-time credit on appeal, contending he was entitled to credit under
If an offender is being sentenced for a fourth degree felony OMVI [operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated] offense, the court shall impose upon the offender a mandatory term of local incarceration or a mandatory prison term in accordance with the following:
(1) Except as provided in division (G)(2) of this section, the court shall impose upon the offender a mandatory term of local incarceration of sixty days ***. The court shall not sentence the offender to a prison term and shall not specify that the offender is to serve the mandatory term of local incarceration in prison.
(Emphasis sic.) Id. at ¶ 11, citing former
{26} After examining the foregoing statutory language, we found that the defendant‘s “reliance on
{27} The circumstances of the present case differ significantly from those in Dunaway. Unlike the defendant in Dunaway, appellant was not convicted of an OVI offense and was therefore not subject to sentencing under
{28} The record in the present case fails to establish how much jail-time credit appellant is entitled to receive. Although the record clearly indicates appellant was in jail from February 24, 2014, after being indicted, until he was released on bond on February 27,
{29} Accordingly, for the reasons stated above, we sustain appellant‘s sole assignment of error and reverse the judgment of the trial court to the extent it failed to properly award jail-time credit under
{30} Judgment reversed and remanded.
RINGLAND and PIPER, JJ., concur.
