Summary
The Ohio First District Court of Appeals reviewed Trulance Combs’s eight-year prison sentence imposed after revocation of community control. The court held that the record supported the trial court’s consideration of the felony-sentencing statutes, but that Combs was entitled to additional confinement credit, including credit for time spent at a community-based correctional facility. The court affirmed in part, vacated the confinement-credit calculation, and remanded for recalculation.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the trial court failed to consider Ohio Rev. Code §§ 2929.11 and 2929.12 when imposing an eight-year prison sentence after revoking community control.
- Whether the trial court improperly calculated Combs's confinement credit by failing to include time spent at the River City Correctional Center.
Holdings
- A reviewing court may presume that the trial court considered the purposes of felony sentencing and applicable sentencing factors unless the defendant affirmatively demonstrates otherwise. Combs did not rebut that presumption, so the eight-year sentence was not contrary to law on this ground.
- A felony offender is entitled to credit for all days confined for any reason arising out of the offense, including qualifying time spent in a community-based correctional facility. Because the trial court failed to determine and award the proper amount of credit, that portion of the sentence was clearly and convincingly contrary to law and had to be vacated and remanded for recalculation.
Key quotations
“A felony offender sentenced to prison is entitled to a credit for the “total number of days that the prisoner was confined for any reason arising out of the offense for which the prisoner was convicted and sentenced.”” (¶ 10)
“The trial court’s failure to properly calculate the amount of confinement-time credit rises to the level of plain error and renders that part of the sentence clearly and convincingly contrary to law.” (¶ 11)
Factual background
Combs pleaded guilty to burglary and was placed on community control with intensive supervision and placement at the River City Correctional Center. He violated community-control conditions by leaving his work detail and failing to return to River City; he also faced a Kentucky sex-offense charge after absconding. The trial court imposed the eight-year prison term previously announced as the consequence of violating community control and awarded 129 days of confinement credit, apparently without including all time spent at River City.
Procedural history
Combs pleaded guilty to second-degree-felony burglary in 2018 and received two years of community control, with notice that violation would result in an eight-year prison term. After he pleaded guilty to violating community-control conditions, the trial court revoked community control and imposed the previously announced eight-year term, crediting him with 129 days. The court of appeals affirmed the sentence in all respects except the confinement-credit calculation, which it vacated and remanded for recalculation.
Remand instructions
The trial court must determine the proper amount of confinement credit to which Combs is entitled, including qualifying time confined at the River City Correctional Center, and correct the confinement-credit portion of the sentence.