State v. Booker, Unpublished Decision (8-30-2000)
State v. Booker, Unpublished Decision (8-30-2000)
Opinion of the Court
While defendant-appellant Donald Booker was on probation for a prior domestic violence conviction, he was indicted for burglary. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of burglary and was sentenced to one year's incarceration on that charge with no credit for time served, and his probation-violation charge was apparently dismissed. Booker appeals his sentence, presenting two assignments of error for our review.
In his first assignment of error, Booker claims that R.C.
In his second assignment of error, Booker challenges the trial court's decision not to credit him for pretrial confinement time served before being sentenced on the burglary conviction. The state argues that the trial court need not credit time on the burglary charge because the trial court was free to allocate the credit to the probation-violation charge. The calculation of credit for pretrial jail time by the trial court is a ministerial act.4 The trial court must calculate the time to be credited at the sentencing hearing, and the time is then "credited" by the Adult Parole Authority.5 While the trial court retains some discretion to determine, for instance, where to apply the pretrial detention credit when a defendant is sentenced to consecutive terms of imprisonment,6 it does not have the discretion to credit the time spent in pretrial detention on an acquitted offense where the defendant was being held for two unrelated charges and was convicted on only one of the charges.7 In the latter situation, the trial court is required to apply the pretrial detention credit toward the time to be served for the convicted charge.8
Here, Booker was held in jail for fifty-one days awaiting sentencing for the burglary and probation-violation charge. At the sentencing hearing, Booker was sentenced on the burglary conviction and the probation-violation charge was "terminated." The trial court refused to credit the fifty-one days on the burglary charge, allocating it instead to the probation-violation charge. Because the trial court does not have the discretion to credit time served on the vacated probation-violation charge, we hold that the trial court failed to correctly calculate credit for the time of incarceration that arose out of the offense for which Booker was found guilty and sentenced. Accordingly, we sustain his second assignment of error.
In sum, we vacate Booker's sentence and remand this case for the trial court to correct its entry to specifically state that Booker is not subject to the imposition of "bad time" and to apply a "51-day credit" for the time Booker served in pretrial detention.
Further, a certified copy of this Judgment Entry shall constitute the mandate, which shall be sent to the trial court under App.R. 27. Costs shall be taxed under App.R. 24.
Gorman, P.J., Painter and Sundermann, JJ.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.