State v. Jewett

2022 Ohio 2612
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 26, 2022
Docket22CA3976
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2022 Ohio 2612 (State v. Jewett) 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. Jewett, 2022 Ohio 2612 (Ohio Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

[Cite as State v. Jewett, 2022-Ohio-2612.]

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT SCIOTO COUNTY

State of Ohio, : Case No. 22CA3976

Plaintiff-Appellee, : DECISION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY v. :

Tyronn Jewett, :

Defendant-Appellant. : RELEASED 7/26/2022

______________________________________________________________________ APPEARANCES:

Tyronn Jewett, Caldwell, Ohio, pro se.

Shane A. Tieman, Prosecuting Attorney, and Jay Willis, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Portsmouth, Ohio, for appellee. ______________________________________________________________________ Hess, J.

{¶1} Tyronn Jewett appeals from a judgment of the Scioto County Common

Pleas Court denying his petition for postconviction relief on the grounds that it was

untimely and barred by res judicata. In his first assignment of error, Jewett contends the

trial court erred when it found his petition was untimely. However, Jewett filed his petition

after the expiration of the statutorily prescribed period and failed to demonstrate the

existence of facts necessary for the trial court to exercise jurisdiction over the merits of

the untimely petition. Therefore, the trial court correctly found that his petition was

untimely, though it technically erred by denying the petition rather than dismissing it for

lack of jurisdiction. Accordingly, we overrule the first assignment of error and affirm the Scioto App. No. 22CA3976 2

judgment of the trial court as modified to reflect dismissal of the petition. This decision

renders moot Jewett’s remaining assignments of error, so we need not address them.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

{¶2} On April 16, 2015, the Scioto County grand jury returned a 46-count

indictment against Jewett and 23 other defendants. The indictment charged Jewett with

41 counts and various specifications. A jury returned verdicts finding Jewett guilty of 33

of the counts and various specifications. On September 22, 2015, the trial court

sentenced Jewett to an aggregate prison term of 40 years, with 16 years being

mandatory. Jewett filed a direct appeal of the judgment of conviction, and we affirmed it.

State v. Jewett, 4th Dist. Scioto No. 15CA3714, 2017-Ohio-2891. Jewett then appealed

to the Supreme Court of Ohio, which declined to accept jurisdiction. State v. Jewett, 150

Ohio St.3d 1444, 2017-Ohio-7843, 82 N.E.3d 1177.

{¶3} On June 8, 2015, Jewett filed a petition for habeas corpus in the United

States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Jewett v. Warden, S.D.Ohio No.

1:18-cv-406, 2020 WL 5960913, *4 (Oct. 8, 2020). A magistrate judge recommended

that the district court dismiss the petition. Id. at *5. On October 3, 2019, Jewett filed

objections to the recommendation and a document captioned “Newly Discovered

Evidence” in which he appeared to allege that the judge who presided over his criminal

trial, now-retired Scioto County Common Pleas Court Judge William Marshall, had a

substance abuse problem. Id. at *5, 9. On October 8, 2020, the district court issued an

opinion and order overruling Jewett’s objections and adopting the magistrate judge’s

recommendation as to the issues it addressed. Id. at *1. The district court treated

Jewett’s “Newly Discovered Evidence” filing as a motion to amend his habeas petition to Scioto App. No. 22CA3976 3

add a due process claim, granted the motion, and stayed further consideration of the

petition “to allow Jewett the opportunity to exhaust his claim in state court.” Id. at *11.

{¶4} On February 22, 2021, Jewett filed a petition for postconviction relief

“pursuant to R.C. 2953.23(A)(1).” Jewett alleged that he was unavoidably prevented from

discovery of the facts upon which he had to rely to present his claim for relief. Jewett

claimed that he had been denied due process and a fair trial because Judge Marshall

“complained of being tired during trial, and made numerous unsound evidentiary

decisions due to suffering from ‘long-term abuse of alcohol’ called ‘alcohol

encephalopathy,’ also known as ‘wet brain.’ ” Jewett asserted that if he had known about

Judge Marshall’s alcoholism, he would have “motioned for recusal.” In addition, Jewett

asserted that his trial counsel was ineffective for not moving for Judge Marshall’s recusal

because counsel should have known that Judge Marshall had been “convicted of DUI,”

had been “in rehab,” and was publicly reprimanded by “disciplinary counsel” on April 1,

2015. Jewett claimed Judge Marshall “was clearly incapable of making impartial

evidentiary decisions.”

{¶5} Jewett attached a number of documents to his petition. There are excerpts

from the trial transcript. There are two WSAZ news articles from January 2013 about

Judge Marshall’s arrest for operating a vehicle under the influence (“OVI”) after crashing

his car. There is a copy of Disciplinary Counsel v. Marshall, 143 Ohio St.3d 62, 2015-

Ohio-1187, 34 N.E.3d 110 (“Marshall”), an April 1, 2015 decision of the Supreme Court

of Ohio. The decision states that Judge Marshall pleaded guilty to the OVI charge on

March 8, 2013, was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with 87 days suspended, and was placed

on unsupervised probation for up to 60 months. Marshall at ¶ 3. The Supreme Court of Scioto App. No. 22CA3976 4

Ohio “publicly reprimanded” Judge Marshall for violating two Ohio Code of Judicial

Conduct rules by operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. Id. at ¶ 8. In

selecting this sanction, the court noted that Judge Marshall had “voluntarily contacted the

Ohio Lawyers Assistance Program (“OLAP”) to address his alcoholism.” Id. at ¶ 6.

{¶6} There is a May 15, 2019 Cincinnati Enquirer article which discusses a

February 2019 guardianship case Judge Marshall’s family filed to have him found

incompetent and take control of his personal and financial affairs. The article states that

according to “[l]egal experts,” cases overseen by Judge Marshall “could now be called

into question because his family is now accusing him of coming to work drunk.” There is

a June 13, 2019 Cincinnati Enquirer article which also discusses the “allegations” of

Judge Marshall’s alcoholism. The article states that “probate court documents” in the

guardianship case “which were recently unredacted after The Enquirer threatened legal

action, show how severe Marshall’s alcoholism had progressed earlier this year.”

According to the article, a ”court-appointed investigator wrote that Marshall suffered from

alcoholic encephalopathy and ‘wet brain,’ a condition brought on by extreme drinking that

limits the brain’s ability to * * * function even when the subject is sober.” The article states

that court documents indicate that Judge Marshall was “first hospitalized for alcoholism”

in 2013 and “was hospitalized for his addiction at least three times after 2013 when he

crashed his car and was convicted for driving under the influence.” The article also states

that the Supreme Court of Ohio “reprimanded Marshall for the incident and his court

sentence included mandatory rehab.” The petition attachments also include a copy of the

2019 motion for emergency guardianship and a partial copy of an affidavit in which Judge

Marshall’s mother purportedly averred that in the five preceding years, Judge Marshall Scioto App. No. 22CA3976 5

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2022 Ohio 2612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jewett-ohioctapp-2022.