State v. Hatfield

842 N.E.2d 128, 164 Ohio App. 3d 338, 2005 Ohio 6259
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 23, 2005
DocketNo. 2004 CA 31.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 842 N.E.2d 128 (State v. Hatfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hatfield, 842 N.E.2d 128, 164 Ohio App. 3d 338, 2005 Ohio 6259 (Ohio Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

*340 Donovan, Judge.

{¶ 1} Defendant-appellant, Darrell Steven Hatfield, appeals the decision of the Champaign County Court of Common Pleas revoking his community control and sentencing him to concurrent prison sentences of six months and eleven months for two counts of theft. Hatfield filed a notice of appeal with this court on December 16, 2004.

I

{¶ 2} On September 13, 2000, Hatfield pleaded guilty to two counts of theft, a first-degree misdemeanor and a fifth-degree felony. After a hearing held on November 22, 2000, the trial court sentenced Hatfield to three years of community control, and he was ordered to pay a $150 fine, $432 in court costs, and restitution in the amount of $4,233. There was no mention by the trial court at the hearing or in the final judgment entry filed on May 29, 2001, of any specific prison sentence that Hatfield would receive if he violated the terms of his community control.

{¶ 3} Hatfield pleaded guilty to six counts of theft in Montgomery County in January 2002, and a community-control violation was filed in Champaign County. After a hearing held on July 31, 2002, the trial court decided to continue Hatfield’s community control. In the journal entry filed on September 16, 2002, the trial court specifically stated that Hatfield would be sentenced to eleven months in prison if the trial court decided to revoke his community control after a subsequent violation.

{¶ 4} Approximately two years later, in February 2004, a second community-control violation was filed against Hatfield. After reviewing the counts 1 in the violation, the trial court temporarily suspended Hatfield’s community control and issued a capias for his arrest on February 20, 2004. At a hearing held on November 19, 2004, Hatfield did not contest the merits of the charges with respect to his failure to report and failure to pay court costs. In a journal entry filed on November 24, 2004, the trial court revoked Hatfield’s community control and sentenced him to a total of eleven months’ imprisonment for the two theft offenses. For the following reasons, the judgment of the trial court is reversed.

II

{¶ 5} Hatfield’s first assignment of error is follows:

*341 {¶ 6} “The trial court erred, abused its discretion and violated defendant’s constitutional and statutory rights when it failed to notify defendant during the sentencing hearing of the specific prison sentence that may be imposed for violation of community control and then subsequently sentenced defendant to prison.”

{¶ 7} In his first assignment of error, Hatfield contends that the trial court lacked the authority to sentence him to prison when it revoked his community control on November 24, 2004. Pursuant to R.C. 2929.19(B)(5) and 2929.15(B), a trial court sentencing an offender to a community-control sanction must, at the time of the sentencing, notify the offender of the specific prison term that may be imposed for a violation of the conditions of the sanction, as a prerequisite to imposing a prison term on the offender for a subsequent violation. State v. Brooks (2004), 108 Ohio St.3d 134, 2004-Ohio-4746, 814 N.E.2d 837. Thus, Hatfield argues that the trial court erred when it sentenced him to eleven months in prison, because it did not inform him at the original sentencing hearing held on November 22, 2000, of the specific sentence that could be imposed if his community control was revoked. We agree.

{¶ 8} It is undisputed that the trial court failed to notify Hatfield at the sentencing hearing on November 22, 2000, of the specific sentence that could be imposed if he violated the conditions of his community control. Additionally, the journal entry filed on September 16, 2002, wherein the trial court specifically stated that Hatfield would be sentenced to eleven months in prison if the trial court decided to revoke his community control after a subsequent violation, was not adequate to put Hatfield on notice for the purposes of R.C. 2929.19(B)(5). The requirement of a statutorily defined notification upon sentencing of an offender to a community-control sanction is not satisfied by notification given in the trial court’s journal entry issued after sentencing. State v. Brooks, 103 Ohio St.3d 134, 814 N.E.2d 837.

{¶ 9} The state, however, argues that Hatfield cannot benefit from the Brooks decision. The state asserts that the holding in Brooks would have to be applied retroactively, because Hatfield’s community-control sentence became final approximately four years before the case was decided. Moreover, the state notes that Hatfield never appealed the decision of the trial court initially sentencing him to community control. Nor did he appeal the continuation of his community control through the trial court’s journal entry filed on September 16, 2002. The state asserts that Hatfield’s opportunity to appeal is gone, because his community-control sentence had become final well before Brooks had been decided. Thus, the state contends that Hatfield has no right to have the holding in Brooks applied to his case. We disagree.

*342 {¶ 10} From a practical standpoint, Hatfield had no reason to appeal the trial court’s grant of community control for the two theft offenses to which he initially pleaded guilty. He was not sentenced to prison, but rather received the benefit of community control. The same rationale applies to the trial court’s continuation of Hatfield’s community control on September 16, 2002. Hatfield did not have any issues to appeal until the trial court revoked his community control and unlawfully sentenced him to prison without properly notifying him of the specific prison term he would receive. When Hatfield was sentenced to prison, Brooks had already been decided approximately two months prior. Hatfield’s case was still pending at the time Brooks was decided, and, therefore, no retroactive application of the Supreme Court holding is necessary.

{¶ 11} The state provides us with three cases from the Fifth, Ninth, and Twelfth Districts that stand for the proposition that Brooks cannot be retroactively applied to community-control sentences that became final prior to Brooks. State v. Novel, Richland App. No. 05CA8, 2005-Ohio-2547, 2005 WL 1208859; State v. Ratkosky, Medina App. No. 05CA0012-M, 2005-Ohio-4368, 2005 WL 2020657; State v. Madaffari, Butler App. No. CA2004-08-193, 2005-Ohio-3625, 2005 WL 1670784. These cases, however, are easily distinguishable from the case at bar. In each of the three cases cited by the state, the defendant’s community control was revoked and the defendant was sentenced to a prison term prior to the date Brooks was decided.

{¶ 12} As stated previously, Hatfield’s community control was not revoked until November 24, 2004, when the trial court sentenced him to eleven months’ incarceration. This occurred almost two months after Brooks was decided.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
842 N.E.2d 128, 164 Ohio App. 3d 338, 2005 Ohio 6259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hatfield-ohioctapp-2005.