State v. Thompson

646 N.E.2d 499, 97 Ohio App. 3d 183, 1994 Ohio App. LEXIS 4052
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 16, 1994
DocketNo. S-93-39.
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 646 N.E.2d 499 (State v. Thompson) 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. Thompson, 646 N.E.2d 499, 97 Ohio App. 3d 183, 1994 Ohio App. LEXIS 4052 (Ohio Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

Sherck, Judge.

Appellant, Nathan J. Thompson, was indicted May 19, 1993, by a Sandusky County Grand Jury on one count of aggravated robbery, with a firearm specification. As a result of the indictment, appellant was arrested on July 14, 1993 and was arraigned the following day in the Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas. Appellant entered a plea of not guilty and bond was set in the amount of $10,000; the record does not indicate that this bond was posted.

The initial trial date was set for September 21, 1993. That trial date was later reassigned to October 5, 1993, with no explanation included in the record for the change. The trial date was again reassigned to October 13, 1993; this time the reassignment notice contained a notation that the continuance was requested by the court. The case was once more reassigned; the new trial date was set for October 19, 1993. This last reassignment notice did not contain any explanation for the change.

Appellant’s trial did commence on October 19, 1993, and appellant was convicted by a jury of aggravated robbery with the specification of possession of a firearm. A judgment entry was journalized on October 25, 1993, accepting the jury verdicts and sentencing appellant to ten to twenty-five years, with three years of additional actual incarceration to be served for the firearm specification. The trial court noted that as of the date of sentencing, appellant was “entitled to 98 DAYS credit against the sentence imposed.”

Appellant filed a notice of appeal on October 28, 1993, setting forth the following three assignments of error:

“ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER ONE
“The defendant was not brought to trial within 90 days of his arrest and is entitled to be discharged because he was not tried within the time required under the Speedy Trial Statute, Ohio Revised Code Sections 2945.71-73, even though he was in custody during that entire period of time, and there is no reason articulated in the record to justify an exception to the clear requirements of the statute.
*185 “ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER TWO
“Appellant was denied his constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel in that his counsel did not timely move for a discharge of appellant for failure of the State to bring him to trial within 90 days after he was placed in jail under bond in this case, as required by 2945.73(B), Ohio Revised Code.
“ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR NUMBER THREE
“It was reversible error for the jury to find defendant guilty of the specification in the indictment that he had a firearm on or about his person during the commission of the alleged offense.”

I

Appellant’s first and second assignments of error will be discussed together.

The right to a speedy trial is guaranteed by the Constitutions of both the United States and the state of Ohio. Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; Section 10, Article I, Constitution of Ohio. The Ohio General Assembly has attempted to quantify this “amorphous” right since 1869. State v. Pachay (1980), 64 Ohio St.2d 218, 219, 18 O.O.3d 427, 427, 416 N.E.2d 589, 590. Its most recent pronouncement is embodied in the “speedy trial” statutes, R.C. 2945.71 through 2945.73, which the Supreme Court of Ohio “has repeatedly announced that the trial courts are to strictly enforce * * Id. at 221, 18 O.O.3d at 429, 416 N.E.2d at 591. R.C. 2945.71(C) and (E) provide that one who is accused of a felony and is “held in jail in lieu of bail on the pending charge” shall be brought to trial within ninety days of his or her arrest. 1

In the instant matter, appellant was arrested on July 14, 1993, and not brought to trial until October 19, 1993: a period of ninety-seven days as computed pursuant to R.C. 1.14. Appellant argues that, because the ninety-seven days between the beginning of his incarceration and the trial exceeds the maximum statutory time and the record contains no cognizable explanations for the delay, appellant is entitled to discharge and the trial court committed plain error for failing to sua sponte grant the same.

Appellant’s argument is specious in two respects. First, the record contains a document captioned “speedy trial calculations” upon which the notation “7-14-93 holder placed and served on him” appears. Elsewhere on the face of this document is the phrase “prob” and “parole viol, holder from Weaver’s court.” The words “prob” and “parole” are interlineated. This document appears to be *186 an attachment to the trial court’s judgment entry on arraignment. The provisions of R.C. 2945.71 that accelerate the speedy trial requirements apply only to one held in jail in lieu of bail solely on the pending charges. State v. McDonald (1976), 48 Ohio St.2d 66, 2 O.O.3d 219, 357 N.E.2d 40, paragraph one of the syllabus. Where, in addition to the pending charges, a defendant is held for a parole or probation violation, the acceleration of time is not triggered. State v. Phillips (1990), 69 Ohio App.3d 379, 381, 590 N.E.2d 1281, 1282. Therefore, if appellant was on a parole or probation “holder” during this period, no violation of the speedy trial statute occurred.

Appellant argues that the document containing the “speedy trial calculations” is insufficient to show that he was held on a parole or probation “holder” and that, in any event, such a holder was predicated on the same charges for which he was tried in this matter. This, appellant suggests, distinguishes his case from the line of cases following McDonald, supra, 48 Ohio St.2d at 71, 2 O.O.3d at 221, 357 N.E.2d at 43, which stands for the proposition that, when a defendant is held in jail or prison for any reason other than awaiting trial for the crime at issue, the speedy trial time is not accelerated. In support of this proposition, appellant cites State v. Sisco (June 28, 1982), Fairfield App. No. 2-CA-82, unreported, 1982 WL 5462.

Appellant is correct insofar as the “speedy trial calculations” document does not show the exact nature of the “holder” with which appellant was served. Therefore, we are unable to determine whether the premise of appellant’s argument distinguishing McDonald is accurate. Nonetheless, we note that the Supreme Court of Ohio has considered appellant’s identical proposition and rejected it. See State v. Martin (1978), 56 Ohio St.2d 207, 210-211, 10 O.O.3d 369, 370-371, 383 N.E.2d 585, 587.

Finally, even were we to determine that the “speedy trial calculation” document is insufficient to establish a probation holder or, for that matter, even if no document whatsoever appeared in the record on this matter, appellant could still not prevail on these assignments.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
646 N.E.2d 499, 97 Ohio App. 3d 183, 1994 Ohio App. LEXIS 4052, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-thompson-ohioctapp-1994.