State v. Morris, Unpublished Decision (3-7-2003)
State v. Morris, Unpublished Decision (3-7-2003)
Opinion of the Court
{¶ 2} Morris was arrested on January 15, 1998. He was subsequently indicted on three charges arising from that arrest: rape, attempted rape, and corrupting another with drugs. Morris remained incarcerated on those three charges until his trial commenced, on April 2, 1998. Morris was convicted of all three charges and was sentenced pursuant to law.
{¶ 3} Morris appealed from his rape and attempted rape convictions. We reversed and vacated those convictions for insufficient evidence. State v. Morris (August 27, 1999), Montgomery App. No. 17287. However, Morris remained incarcerated on his sentence for the companion offense of corrupting another with drugs, from which he had not appealed.
{¶ 4} Morris completed his sentence and was released from prison in October of 1999. On December 14, 1999, he was indicted for sexual battery and attempted sexual battery. Eight days later, on December 22, 1999, Morris filed a motion to dismiss those charges for violation of his speedy trial rights.
{¶ 5} The trial court denied Morris' speedy trial claim on February 25, 2000. The court found no violation of the speedy trial provisions of R.C.
{¶ 6} Morris filed another motion to dismiss, arguing that the prosecution on the charges in his second indictment was barred by double jeopardy. The trial court agreed and dismissed the indictment. We reversed on appeal and reinstated it. State v. Morris (March 9, 2001), Montgomery App. No. 18321. Morris' subsequent appeals to the Ohio Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court were denied.
{¶ 7} On the remand from our reversal, Morris entered a plea of no contest to the sexual battery and attempted sexual battery charges on January 10, 2002. He was convicted on his pleas, and was sentenced to five years community control and designated a sexually oriented offender. He filed a timely notice of appeal.
{¶ 9} Morris doesn't challenge the trial court's decision concerning his constitutional speedy trial rights. Instead, he challenges the court's decision on his statutory speedy trial claim.
{¶ 10} The
{¶ 11} A person against whom a felony charge is pending must be brought to trial on that charge within two hundred and seventy days after his related arrest. R.C.
{¶ 12} The terms of R.C.
{¶ 13} Defendant filed his R.C.
{¶ 14} Defendant argues, as he did in the trial court, that in addition to those eight days he is also entitled to the benefit of the statutory speedy trial time applicable to the prior charges of rape and attempted rape, commencing when he was arrested on January 15, 1998 until he was brought to trial on those charges on April 2, 1998. Between those times, seventy-seven days elapsed. He remained incarcerated during that time on those charges and the charge of corrupting another with drugs. Per the triple count provisions of R.C.
{¶ 15} The State argues that none of the speedy trial time applicable to the prior rape and attempted rape charges apply at all to the statutory speedy trial requirements that Defendant invoked on December 27, 1999, with respect to his sexual battery and attempted sexual battery charges. The State concedes, however, that those subsequent charges arise from the same conduct as the former charges. In that circumstance, and so long as the State knew of the facts supporting both set of charges, the statutory speedy trial time applicable to the earlier charges attaches as well to the later charges. State v. Adams
(1989),
{¶ 16} The trial court rejected Defendant's efforts to add the speedy trial time applicable to the prior rape and attempted rape charges to his motion for discharge on the sexual battery and attempted sexual battery charges, holding that R.C.
{¶ 17} In Fanning, a trial had terminated in a mistrial. The court held that the interval between the declaration of a mistrial and commencement of the second trial, which it termed a "retrial," did not count toward the defendant's statutory speedy trial time. That holding is in accord with the view that the requirements of R.C.
{¶ 18} Defendant's first trial terminated in a conviction, not a mistrial. The second proceeding that commenced with his indictment on December 14, 1999, was a wholly separate proceeding on different charges, based on facts known to the State when the prior charges were filed. Therefore, the speedy trial time applicable to the first charges of rape and attempted rape apply as well to the subsequent sexual battery and attempted sexual battery charges, for a total of two hundred and thirty-nine speedy trial days that had elapsed when Defendant filed his motion for discharge.
{¶ 19} Seizing on the view that the second proceeding is not a retrial, Morris argues that the statutory speedy trial time applicable to the charges it involved commenced running not with his second indictment but, instead, when we reversed his convictions for rape and attempted rape on August 27, 1999. In that event, the two hundred and seventy day limit was plainly exceeded when the motion for discharge was filed.
{¶ 20} We do not agree. After we vacated Morris' convictions for rape and attempted rape there were no charges pending against him arising from the conduct to which those charges related until he was indicted for sexual battery and attempted sexual battery on December 14, 1999. Because Ohio's statutory speedy trial scheme requires the pendency of charges of some kind, the hiatus between our decision and the later indictment doesn't count against Morris' R.C.
{¶ 21} On the foregoing analysis, only two hundred and thirty-nine statutory speedy trial days had expired when Morris filed his motion for discharge on December 22, 1999. Two hundred and seventy days are permitted. R.C
{¶ 22} The first assignment of error is overruled.
{¶ 24} Defendant argues that Double Jeopardy barred the State's second indictment charging him with sexual battery and attempted sexual battery after he was acquitted of rape and attempted rape. Defendant concedes that this court previously considered and rejected this same claim on its merits during a prior appeal in this case. State v. Morris (March 9, 2001), Montgomery App. No. 18321.
{¶ 25} Pursuant to the doctrine of law of the case, the decision of a reviewing court in a case remains the law of that case on the legal questions involved for all subsequent proceedings in the case at both the trial and reviewing levels. DeRolph v. State,
{¶ 26} As Defendant rightly acknowledges, further review of the double jeopardy issue in this case by this court is barred by the law of the case doctrine.
{¶ 27} The second assignment of error is overruled. The judgment of the trial court will be affirmed.
FAIN, P.J. and YOUNG, J., concur.
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