The Akron Legal News

Login | March 28, 2024

Post-release control vacated for convicted rapist

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News

Published: May 27, 2015

The 9th District Court of Appeals recently ruled that the Lorain County Court of Common Pleas improperly placed a man convicted of first-degree felony rape on post-release control and it vacated that portion of the lower court’s sentence.

The defendant, Brian Keyes, pleaded guilty to one count of rape in 2002 and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

The sentence was ordered to run concurrently with a 10 to 25-year sentence that Keyes was serving in an unrelated case.

In December 2011, Keyes filed a motion to vacate his nine-year sentence due to an error in the trial court’s imposition of post-release control. The trial court denied that motion and Keyes appealed but later withdrew the appeal.

In November 2012, Keyes filed a writ of coram nobis, which alleged fundamental error in lower court proceedings.

Through the writ, Keyes again claimed that he was improperly placed on post-release control.

According to the writ, Keyes had completed his nine-year sentence and his sentencing entry did not contain the proper term of post-release control, therefore, the post-release control portion of his sentence was void.

The trial court denied the writ and Keyes did not appeal.

Instead, in February 2014, Keyes filed another, identical writ. That too was denied by the trial court.

It was from that decision that Keyes appealed to the 9th District court, arguing that the lower court erred when it denied the writ.

“The Ohio Supreme Court, however, has held that ‘the common-law writ of coram nobis is not part of the law in Ohio,’” Judge Carla Moore wrote on behalf of the appellate panel. “Because Ohio does not recognize a writ of coram nobis, the trial court did not err by denying Mr. Keyes’ writ.”

Still, in another assignment of error, Keyes argued that the trial court erred by not vacating his post-release control.

The court of appeals noted that, in Keyes’ sentencing entry, the trial court stated that he would be subject to “mandatory/optional” post-release control for “up to a maximum of 3/5 years.”

In reality, because Keyes was convicted of a first-degree felony rape, he was subject to a mandatory five-year term of supervision.

“Because the court did not impose a mandatory five-year term of post-release control upon Mr. Keyes, his sentence runs afoul of the post-release control statute,” Moore wrote. “When a judge fails to impose statutorily mandated post-release control as part of a defendant’s sentence, that part of the sentence is void and must be set aside.”

In opposition to the state, the court of appeals ruled that, since Keyes already served his sentence for the rape, he was precluded from being resentenced for the proper imposition of parole supervision.

“This court therefore remands this matter to the trial court to vacate the portion of the sentencing entry that attempted to impose post-release control,” Moore concluded.

Presiding Judge Jennifer Hensal and Judge Donna Carr joined Moore to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. Keyes, 2015-Ohio-1757.

Copyright © 2015 The Daily Reporter - All Rights Reserved


[Back]