State v. Jones

Summary

The Supreme Court of Ohio held that when revoking community control, a trial court may order a reserved prison term to run consecutively to another sentence only if it notified the offender at the time community control was imposed that consecutive sentencing was possible. Because Brooke Jones did not receive that notice, the court was not authorized to impose the reserved two-year term consecutively to her Jefferson County sentence. The judgment was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for imposition of a concurrent sentence.

Holdings

1. When a court revokes community control, it may require the reserved prison term to be served consecutively to another existing or then-imposed sentence only if, when imposing community control, it notified the offender that a consecutive sentence on revocation was a possibility.
2. A reserved prison term is a potential future sentence, not a contemporaneous sentence imposed with community control, and therefore is not available as an already imposed sentence for purposes of consecutive sentencing.
3. The findings required by R.C. 2929.14(C)(4) must be made when imposing consecutive sentences after revocation of community control.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a trial court may impose a reserved prison term consecutively to another sentence after revoking community control when the court did not notify the offender at the original community-control sentencing that consecutive sentencing was a possibility.
2. Whether the trial court could impose the reserved term consecutively without first making the findings required by R.C. 2929.14(C)(4).
3. Whether the original or subsequent sentencing court has authority to impose a sentence consecutive to a reserved prison term that had not yet been imposed.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded