The Akron Legal News

Convicted murderer loses plea for time-served credit

ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 8, 2013

An appellate panel in the 7th District Court of Appeals last week affirmed the judgment of the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas and its calculation of jail-time credit after a convicted murderer pleaded guilty and was sentenced on seven counts of felonious assault against a peace officer.

The court granted Jermaine McKinney 263 days of jail-time credit, but in his appeal McKinney argued that he should have received 1,200 days because he was in jail from the date of his arrest on Jan. 1, 2006, until the date he entered his guilty plea and was sentenced on April 16, 2009.

McKinney, however, was also serving two life sentences for a separate murder case in Trumbull County.

According to the background provided by the court of appeals, McKinney was arrested for shooting at peace officers while he was at large for the murders of Rebecca Cilburn and Wanda Rollyson.

McKinney garnered media attention at the time because of what officers called “CSI syndrome.”

A fan of the show, McKinney utilized the tactics he had seen on TV to dispose of evidence at the crime scene.

On the night of the murders, McKinney lured Cilburn into her home as part of a plot to burglarize the residence.

He used a crowbar to kill Rollyson, her 70-year-old mother, and then shot Cilburn twice in the head.

McKinney used bleach to wash away any DNA evidence and then burned the bodies of the two women.

He removed all cigarette butts from the scene, after having seen on CSI that investigators could gather DNA evidence from them.

Then he burned the clothes he wore and wiped the scene of fingerprints.

However, McKinney was apprehended after he tried to use a credit card belonging to Rollyson.

He hid in a house and fired at police officers when they came to arrest him, leading to the felonious assault charges.

On Dec. 11, 2006, McKinney was sentenced in Trumbull County to two terms of life imprisonment without parole for the murders, 10 years in prison for aggravated burglary, 10 years for aggravated robbery, 10 years for kidnapping and eight years for aggravated arson, all to be served consecutively.

On Aug. 30 , 2007, the Mahoning County grand jury indicted McKinney on 14 counts of felonious assault against a peace officer, along with corresponding firearm specifications.

He entered pleas of guilty to seven counts of assault and the remaining charges were dropped.

McKinney was sentenced in 2009 to seven years in prison to be served concurrently with the sentence in the Trumbull County murder case. He was awarded 180 days of jail-time credit.

In 2010, McKinney filed a motion for more jail-time credit which the state opposed.

In 2012, he filed yet another motion, which the trial court partially granted, awarding McKinney 263 days of jail-time credit.

Upon appeal, McKinney argued that he was entitled to even more credit for time served.

“Appellant contends that, under State v. Fugate, a defendant is entitled to have jail-time credit applied to all related concurrent sentences,” wrote Judge Cheryl Waite for the court of appeals.

State v. Fugate stated in part, “When a defendant is sentenced to concurrent prison terms for multiple charges, jail-time credit pursuant to R.C. 2967.191 must be applied toward each concurrent prison term.”

McKinney interpreted the case to mean that all the time he spent in jail or prison should have been applied to his sentence in the assault case, concluding that he was still owed 937 days of credit.

The appellate panel determined that McKinney’s appeal was barred by res judicata because he did not raise the issue on direct appeal.

“Even if the matter was not res judicata, appellant’s argument is not persuasive,” wrote Judge Waite. “Fugate did not negate the basic principle that a defendant is not entitled to jail-time credit for time incarcerated in another county for unrelated offenses.”

The court held that, once McKinney was convicted and sentenced in the Trumbull County murder case, he was no longer being confined in lieu of bail, he was confined to prison for the murder conviction.

“Thus, appellant was not entitled to anything even remotely approaching 1,200 days of jail-time credit in this case,” Judge Waite wrote.

At most, the appellate panel calculated that McKinney was entitled to time served from the day of his arrest until the date he began serving his prison term for the killings.

“Appellant presents no reason to question the trial court’s calculation of 263 days of jail-time credit, and we will presume that calculation was correct,” Judge Waite concluded.

Judge Waite was joined by Presiding Judge Mary DeGenaro and Judge Joseph Vukovich to form the majority.

The case is cited State v. McKinney, 2013-Ohio-4357.

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