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Top court mulls 112-year prison term for juvenile crimes
COLUMBUS
The Ohio Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in the case of a Mahoning County defendant who says the 112-year prison term he received for the rape, robbery and kidnapping offenses he committed when he was 15 is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eigth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The sentence was imposed on Brandon Moore by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after Moore was tried and convicted as an adult for crimes he committed Aug. 21, 2001.
Moore’s appeal is based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Graham v. Florida decision, which ruled it’s unconstitutional to sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole unless they commit murder.
He argues that his sentence amounts to life without parole because his earliest release eligibility would be at age 92.
However, Ralph Rivera, an assistant Mahoning County prosecutor, said Moore’s case differs from Graham because Moore received maximum consecutive sentences totaling 112 years for kidnapping and multiple counts of aggravated robbery and rape with firearm specifications, whereas Terrence Graham received life in prison without parole for one offense — an armed home robbery he committed at age 17.
Moore, who is in the Marion Correctional Institution, did not receive more than 10 years in prison for any single count, said Rivera, who will argue against Moore before the state’s top court.
Judge Krichbaum originally had sentenced Moore to 141 years in prison after a jury convicted him for his role in the kidnapping, robbery and gang rape of a 21-year-old Boardman woman at gunpoint on Detroit Avenue and of a separate armed robbery of a couple in Youngstown earlier the same evening.
However, Judge Krichbaum reduced the sentence to 112 years after the Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals ruled some of the firearm specifications had to merge for sentencing purposes.
“It is the intention of this court that you should never be released from the penitentiary,” Judge Krichbaum told Moore during his January 2008 resentencing.
In the same case, Judge Krichbaum sentenced co-defendants Chaz Bunch to 105 years, Andre Bundy to 18 years and Jamar Callier to seven years in prison. Callier testified in the case after pleading guilty to reduced charges.