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Man who pleaded guilty to murder has appeal denied
ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: November 20, 2015
The 9th District Court of Appeals recently overruled an appeal from Robert Jordan Jr., a Summit County man who pleaded guilty to murder and burglary last year.
Appealing from the judgment of the county court of common pleas, Jordan claimed he did not enter his guilty pleas knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily.
His single assignment of error was overruled by a three-judge appellate panel.
Case summary states that the Summit County Grand Jury indicted Jordan and several codefendants on June 30, 2014 for the murder of Shawn Dotson.
Jordan initially pleaded not guilty to the charges but subsequently appeared for a change-of-plea hearing and pleaded guilty to one count of murder with a firearm specification and one count of aggravated burglary.
Pursuant to an agreement with the state, the remaining charges were dismissed and the trial court sentenced Jordan to an agreed-upon 18 years to life in prison.
In his delayed appeal to the 9th District court Jordan argued that, while the trial court informed him that by pleading guilty he was waiving his right to appeal, it failed to tell him that he was also waiving his right to appeal the trial court’s ruling on pretrial motions.
Before entering his guilty plea, Jordan had filed a motion to sever his trial from that of his codefendants. He only entered into the plea agreement after that motion was overruled.
According to Jordan, Crim.R. 11(C)(2)(b) requires the trial court to address the waiver of pretrial motions at a plea colloquy.
“This court disagrees,” Presiding Judge Donna Carr wrote in the opinion she authored on behalf of the appellate panel. “A guilty plea represents a break in the chain of events that preceded it in the criminal process, thus, a defendant who admits his guilt waives the right to challenge the propriety of any action taken by a trial court or trial counsel prior to that point in the proceedings unless it affected the knowing and voluntary character of the plea.”
Jordan contended that the failure to address the appellate process did render his plea involuntary.
However, the court of appeals found that Jordan failed to cite any authority in support of his proposition that the trial court ran afoul of the rules of criminal sentencing.
“Moreover, this court has held that the trial court’s duty to advise a defendant of his right to appeal does not arise until sentencing and, therefore, has no effect upon whether the defendant’s guilty plea was entered knowing, voluntarily and intelligently,” Carr wrote. “Accordingly, the assignment of error is overruled.”
Judges Carla Moore and Julie Schafer joined Carr to form the majority and uphold the judgment of the Summit County court.
The case is cited State v. Jordan, 2015-Ohio-4354.
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