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7th District remands attempted murder case
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: March 26, 2014
A Mahoning County attempted murder case must be remanded because the trial court abused its discretion at sentencing, the 7th District Court of Appeals ruled recently.
Sherrick Jackson appealed after a judge sentenced him to 26 years in prison. He pleaded guilty on Aug. 20, 2012 to two counts of attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault and four firearm specifications.
According to case summary, the trial court found the felonious assault counts merged with the attempted murder counts, and the felonious assault firearm specifications merged with the attempted murder firearm specifications.
On appeal, Jackson argued consecutive sentences were not warranted because he had only one prior adult conviction, he admitted his actions, and his co-defendant was given the same sentence even though he went to trial and denied guilt.
In addition, Jackson said he apologized for his actions and that a presentence investigation improperly labeled his risk of recidivism as “high” when he only had two points, a “low” score.
In his majority opinion, 7th District Judge Gene Donofrio found the trial court failed to comply with R.C. 2929.14(C)(4) because felony sentencing under H.B. 86 once again requires a trial court to make specific findings when imposing consecutive sentences.
“The court did not make a finding that consecutive sentences were necessary to protect the public from future crime or to punish appellant,” Judge Donofrio wrote. “The court did not make a finding that consecutive sentences were not disproportionate to the seriousness of appellant’s conduct and to the danger posed to the public. And the court did not find any of the three situations set out in R.C. 2929.14©(4)(a)(b)(c).
“In this case the court failed to make even one of three statutorily required findings. A trial court’s failure to make the required statutory findings before imposing consecutive sentences is plain error.”
However, the panel rejected Jackson’s other assignment of error – that his 10-year sentences for attempted murder were inconsistent with or disproportionate to sentences of similar offenders for similar crimes. Jackson’s trial lawyer referred to an unrelated case where two people were killed with shotguns and the defendant received just six years in prison.
Appellate judges Joseph J. Vukovich and Mary DeGenaro concurred.
The case is cited State v. Jackson, 2014-Ohio-777.