State v. Jones

Summary

The Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals affirmed Sherman Jones's convictions and aggregate fourteen-to-eighteen-year prison sentence for aggravated drug possession and aggravated drug trafficking with a forfeiture specification. The court held that the trial court properly considered the statutory sentencing factors and made and supported the findings required for consecutive sentences under R.C. 2929.14(C)(4).

Holdings

1. The sentence was not contrary to law because the trial court stated that it considered the purposes and principles of felony sentencing, considered the R.C. 2929.12 factors, and imposed a sentence within the permissible statutory range. The appellate court could not independently reweigh those factors.
2. The trial court made the findings required by R.C. 2929.14(C)(4), including that consecutive sentences were necessary to punish Jones and protect the public, were not disproportionate, and that the offenses formed part of a course of conduct causing unusually great or unusual harm and that his criminal history demonstrated the need for consecutive sentences.
3. The record supported the trial court's consecutive-sentence findings; the appellate court did not clearly and convincingly find that the evidence failed to support them.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court imposed a felony sentence contrary to law by failing to properly consider the mitigating and recidivism factors under R.C. 2929.11 and R.C. 2929.12.
2. Whether the trial court made the findings required by R.C. 2929.14(C)(4) to impose consecutive sentences.
3. Whether the record clearly and convincingly failed to support the trial court's consecutive-sentence findings.

Disposition

affirmed