Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eleventh District, Ashtabula
Criminal
Appeal from the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas, Case
No. 2014 CR 00207.
Nicholas A. Iarocci, Ashtabula County Prosecutor, Ashtabula
County Courthouse (For Plaintiff-Appellee).
Michelle M. French, Law Offices of Michelle M. French, LLC,
(For Defendant-Appellant).
OPINION
CYNTHIA WESTCOTT RICE, P.J.
{¶1}
Appellant, Stanley T. Smith, appeals the judgment of the
Ashtabula County Court of Common pleas denying his pro se
motion for jail-time credit. Appellant's appointed,
appellate counsel has filed a brief and requested leave to
withdraw, pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S.
738 (1967). Appellant was served with the brief and
subsequently filed a pro se appellate brief. After conducting
an independent review of appellant's case, we conclude
the instant appeal is wholly frivolous and affirm the trial
court's denial of appellant's motion.
{¶2}
On May 30, 2014, appellant was indicted for illegal assembly
of chemicals for the manufacture of drugs, a felony of the
third degree ("the Ashtabula County case").
Appellant pled not guilty. The bond set in the Painesville
Municipal Court was continued and appellant remained free on
bond.
{¶3}
On October 8, 2014, appellant withdrew his not guilty plea
and pled guilty to the indictment. Bond was continued pending
preparation of a pre-sentence report. The court noted
appellant had not served any jail time on this charge. The
court scheduled sentencing for December 11, 2014.
{¶4}
On December 8, 2014, appellant was arrested in Lake County
and incarcerated in the Lake County Jail on a new case in
which he was also charged with illegal assembly of chemicals
for the manufacture of drugs ("the Lake County
case"). Upon discovering this development, the Ashtabula
County Court rescheduled sentencing for January 27, 2015.
{¶5}
On January 26, 2015, appellant was conveyed to the Ashtabula
County Court for sentencing. At the January 27, 2015
sentencing, appellant was sentenced to two and one-half years
in prison with no days of jail-time credit. He was then
returned to the Lake County Jail for disposition of the Lake
County case.
{¶6}
Appellant did not file a direct appeal in the Ashtabula
County case. Instead, five months after he was sentenced in
that case, on June 25, 2015, he filed a pro-se motion for
jail-time credit. He conceded he was given 56 days of
jail-time credit, but argued he was entitled to an additional
78 days of jail-time credit. Appellant subsequently withdrew
this motion, stating he was not entitled to the jail-time
credit he requested.
{¶7}
Thereafter, on August 15, 2016, appellant filed a second
pro-se motion for jail-time credit in the Ashtabula County
case in which he made virtually the same argument he made in
his first motion. The only exhibit appellant attached to this
motion was a copy of a brief a Lake County assistant
prosecutor filed in opposition to a motion for jail-time
credit that appellant apparently filed in the Lake County
case.
{¶8}
In his brief, the Lake County assistant prosecutor asked the
trial court to "deny Defendant's Motion for Jail
Time Credit * * *." That prosecutor said: "On April
14, 2015, the Defendant was sentenced to [two years] in
prison [in the Lake County Case], with 50 days credit
(12/8/14 - 1/26/15), consecutive to his prison sentence in
[the Ashtabula County case], in which case he was sentenced
on 1/27/15 to [two and one-half years] in prison with 0 days
credit." The prosecutor said appellant "received
the correct amount of jail-time credit in [the Lake County
case] and that it was for "[t]he Department of
Corrections [to] credit the Defendant with serving his
Ashtabula County prison sentence from 1/27/15 until at least
4/14/15 when he was sentenced by [the Lake County]
Court." (The Lake County court denied appellant's
motion for jail-time credit. Appellant appealed that ruling
and that appeal is now pending in this court.)
{¶9}
The Ashtabula County assistant prosecutor filed a brief in
opposition to appellant's motion for jail-time credit.
The prosecutor argued that appellant's motion should be
denied because it was barred by res judicata and also because
appellant had already received credit for time served on the
Ashtabula County case, suggesting that if his motion was
granted, he would receive duplicate jail-time credit for the
period from January 27, 2015 (when he was sentenced in
Ashtabula County) to April 14, 2015 (when he was sentenced in
Lake County). The trial court denied appellant's motion.
{¶10}
Appellant, pro se, appealed the trial court's ruling.
This court appointed Michelle M. French as appellant's
appellate counsel. She filed an appellate brief pursuant to
Anders, supra, in which she stated she had reviewed
the record and applicable law and could not find any error
prejudicial to appellant's rights. Pursuant to
Anders, counsel ...