Login | October 18, 2024
Franklin County appellate panel reverses felony theft judgments
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 17, 2024
A Franklin County appellate panel reversed judgments in three cases in which a Columbus woman was convicted of a fifth-degree felony theft charge in each instance.
The Tenth District Court of Appeals panel determined that the trial court failed to make the necessary findings to support imposition of consecutive sentences in each of the cases, which were adjudicated during a single trial.
“Pursuant to R.C. 2929.14(C)(4), in order to impose consecutive terms of imprisonment, a trial court is required to make at least three distinct findings: consecutive sentences are necessary to protect the public from future crime or to punish the offender; consecutive sentences are not disproportionate to the seriousness of the offender’s conduct and to the danger the offender poses to the public; and one of the subsections (of the statute) applies,” Tenth District Judge Betsy Luper Schuster wrote for the 3-0 panel.
The considerations outlined in the subsections referenced include:
• The offender committed one or more of the multiple offenses while awaiting trial or sentencing; was under residential, non-residential or financial sanctions; or was under post-release control for a prior offense;
• At least two of the multiple offenses were committed as part of one or more courses of conduct and the harm caused was so great or unusual that no single prison term for any of the offenses committed as part of any of the courses of conduct adequately reflects the seriousness of the offender’s conduct; and
• The offender’s history of criminal conduct demonstrates that consecutive sentences are necessary to protect the public from future crime by the offender.
Destanie Flint was convicted of a single count of theft in each of the three cases in September 2021, according to case background.
In each of the cases, the Franklin County Common Pleas court imposed a three-year period of community control and a suspended 12-month prison sentence to be served consecutively with the other cases, for a total prison term of three years.
The court revoked Flint’s community control based on the woman’s probation violations April 18, 2024, and it reinstated the prison sentences, the summary detailed.
On the same day, Flint was convicted of a single count of possessing criminal tools and the trial court imposed a prison sentence of 12 months, to be served concurrently to the prison sentences imposed in the other three cases.
Flint subsequently appealed, arguing that the trial court was mistaken to order three maximum consecutive sentences without making the findings necessary to impose maximum consecutive sentences.
“Here, based on Flint’s probation violations, the trial court reinstated the previously suspended 12-month prison sentences in case Nos. 20CR-4924, 21CR-2593 and 21CR-3632, and ordered those sentences to run consecutively to each other, for an aggregate prison sentence of three years,” Luper Schuster continued. “But the trial court imposed those consecutive sentences without making the necessary findings pursuant to R.C. 2929.14(C)(4).
Having sustained Flint’s assignment of error, the appellate panel reversed the judgments and remanded the cases to the common pleas court for further proceedings consistent with law and the decision.
Tenth District judges Carly Edelstein and David Leland concurred with Luper Schuster.
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