State v. Heise

2020 Ohio 662
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided February 27, 2020·No. 108286 & 108776·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA

STATE OF OHIO, :

Plaintiff-Appellee, :

Nos. 108286 and 108776

v. :

REGINALD HEISE, :

Defendant-Appellant. :

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED

RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: February 27, 2020

Criminal Appeal from the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Case No. CR-16-603450-A

Appearances:

Michael C. O’Malley, Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, and Frank Romeo Zeleznikar, and Mary M.

Frey, Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys, for appellee.

Norman & Tayeh, L.L.C., and William Norman, for appellant.

EILEEN T. GALLAGHER, A.J.:

Defendant-appellant, Reginald Heise, appeals from his convictions following a guilty plea. He raises the following assignments of error for review:

1. The trial court erred in finding that Heise’s indictment charged an offense proscribed by R.C. 2911.11(A).

2. The trial court committed plain error, and exceeded its authority, by convicting and sentencing Heise under R.C. 2911.11(A) and 2941.145(A), where the charging terms of the indictment and R.C. 1.51 required judgment and sentence under R.C. 2911.211(A).

3. The trial court erred in finding Heise’s guilty plea was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary.

4. The trial court erred in denying Heise’s motion to withdraw guilty plea without conducting an evidentiary hearing.

5. Due to ineffective assistance of counsel, Heise did not enter a guilty plea which was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary.

6. Counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the indictment, plea, and judgment on due process grounds and R.C. 1.51.

7. Counsel was ineffective for failing to object to the indictment on grounds of multiplicity.

After careful review of the record and relevant case law, we affirm Heise’s convictions and sentence. Heise’s arguments concerning the sufficiency of his indictment rely on a misinterpretation of the criminal statute governing his conduct. Moreover, Heise has failed to meet his burden of demonstrating the existence of a manifest injustice that warrants the withdrawal of his guilty plea.

I. Procedural and Factual History In March 2016, Heise was named in a three-count indictment, charging him with two counts of aggravated burglary in violation of R.C. 2911.11(A)(2), with one-and three-year firearm specifications, a notice of prior conviction specification, and a repeat violent offender specification; and a single count of aggravated menacing in violation of R.C. 2903.21(A).

At a hearing held in June 2016, Heise expressed that he wished to withdraw his previously entered pleas of not guilty and accept a plea agreement with the state. The state then set forth the terms of the proposed plea agreement, expressing that, as a condition of the plea, Heise was to have no direct or indirect contact with the victims in this case. The state further recommended a six-year term of imprisonment.

Following a Crim.R. 11 colloquy, Heise pleaded guilty to an amended charge of aggravated burglary in violation of R.C. 2911.11(A)(2), with a three-year firearm specification and a notice of prior conviction specification. The remaining charges were nolled. The trial court accepted Heise’s guilty plea and referred him to the county probation department for a presentence-investigation report.

In July 2016, the trial court sentenced Heise to three years in prison on the aggravated burglary offense, to be served consecutively with the three-year firearm specification, for a total prison term of six years.

Heise did not file a timely appeal. Instead, Heise waited well over two years before filing a pro se postsentence motion to withdraw his guilty plea in February 2019. In the motion, Heise argued that, due to ineffective assistance of counsel, his guilty plea was not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily made.

Before the trial court issued a ruling on Heise’s motion to withdraw, Heise filed a notice of appeal and motion for delayed appeal with this court in 8th Dist Cuyahoga No. 108286. In March 2019, this court granted Heise’s motion for delayed appeal and appointed appellate counsel.

In June 2019, Heise filed a motion for stay and order of remand, requesting this court to remand the matter to the trial court for a ruling on his pending motion to withdraw. This court granted Heise’s motion, stating:

Motion by Heise for stay and order of remand for the sole purpose of the trial court ruling on the pending motion to withdraw the guilty plea is granted. Matter is remanded to the trial court until July 25, 2019.

Should the trial court deny the motion to withdraw, Heise shall file a separate notice of appeal and request consolidation with the instant appeal. Should the trial court grant the motion, and the granting renders the instant appeal moot, Heise shall file a motion to dismiss the appeal pursuant to App.R. 28. Notice issued.

On remand, the trial court denied Heise’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea in July 2019, without a hearing. Heise appealed from the trial court’s judgment in 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 108776. Because the cases stemmed from the same indictment, this court consolidated Case Nos. 108286 and 108776 for the purpose of this appeal.

Heise now appeals from his conviction and the trial court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his plea.

II. Law and Analysis

A. Validity of Indictment In his first assignment of error, Heise argues the trial court erred in finding that his indictment charged him with an offense proscribed by R.C. 2911.11(A). In his second assignment of error, Heise argues the trial court committed plain error by convicting and sentencing him under R.C. 2911.11(A) and 2941.145(A), where the charging terms of the indictment required judgment and sentence under R.C. 2911.211(A). Collectively, Heise’s first and second assignments of error challenge the perceived defects in his indictment. Heise contends that he “remains indicted, convicted, and sentenced under Section 2911.11(A) for conduct not criminal.” We consider these assigned errors together.

Preliminarily, we note that this court has previously held that

under Crim.R. 12(C)(2) “[d]efenses and objections based on defects in the indictment” must be raised before trial. According to the Ohio Supreme Court, the “failure to timely object to the allegedly defective indictment constitutes a waiver of the issues involved.” State v. Biros, 78 Ohio St.3d 426, 436, 678 N.E.2d 891 (1997), citing State v. Joseph, 73 Ohio St.3d 450, 653 N.E.2d 285 (1995). Furthermore, this court has held that “‘by voluntarily entering a guilty plea, a defendant waives the right to contest non-jurisdictional defects that occurred before the plea was entered. More specifically, by voluntarily entering a guilty plea [the defendant] waived his right to a direct appeal of any alleged defects in the indictment.’” State v. Moree, 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 90894, 2009 Ohio-472, ¶21, quoting State v. Salter, 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 82488, 2003-Ohio-5652. (Internal citations omitted.).

State v. Szidik, 8th Dist. Cuyahoga No. 95644, 2011-Ohio-4093, ¶ 7. Thus, by failing to timely object to the indictment and by pleading guilty to aggravated burglary pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement, we find Heise has waived his right to challenge any alleged defect in the indictment.

Nevertheless, assuming Heise had not waived his right to object to the perceived defects in the indictment, his arguments are without merit. As stated, Count 1 of Heise’s indictment charged him with aggravated burglary in violation of R.C. 2911.11(A)(2). The statute provides, in relevant part:

(A) No person, by force, stealth, or deception, shall trespass in an occupied structure or in a separately secured or separately occupied portion of an occupied structure, when another person other than an accomplice of the offender is present, with purpose to commit in the structure or in the separately secured or separately occupied portion of the structure any criminal offense, if any of the following apply:

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State v. Heise, 2020 Ohio 662 (Ohio Ct. App. 2020).

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