Appeals court orders resentencing in case

WARREN -- The 11th District Court of Appeals has vacated part of a sentencing from Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that imposed consecutive sentencings for a Warren man convicted of drug offenses.
The appeals court said a portion of the sentence of John Iser III from April 5, 2004, should be returned to the common pleas court for resentencing -- because that court failed to give reasons for consecutive sentences in open court.
Iser was sentenced to 11 months on a charge of possession of cocaine and three years on a charge of possession of crack cocaine to run consecutively.
He had been arrested March 22, 2002, at a residence on Ogden Street, where Warren police found drugs, the appeals court ruling states.
At Iser's sentencing, Common Pleas Judge John M. Stuard did not give a reason for imposing the consecutive sentences until the prosecutor asked whether the reason was because a 12-year-old girl was found in the house at the time.
"That is exactly what the court must say and I do say," the judge said.
Stuard then set forth facts in a judgment entry constituting its reasons for selecting consecutive sentences.
"This subsequent entry, however, does not satisfy a legal requirement that the reasons and findings be made orally at the sentencing hearing," the appeals court stated.