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Ohio high court orders resentencing for juvenile offender
YOUNGSTOWN
A Mahoning County defendant’s 112-year sentence for rape, aggravated robbery and kidnapping he committed as a juvenile, with eligibility for judicial release when he turns 92, is unconstitutional, and he must be resentenced, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The 4-3 ruling said the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision barring life sentences or imprisonment without parole for juvenile nonhomicide offenders also prohibits “term-of-years” prison sentences that exceed the defendant’s life expectancy.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Graham v. Florida ruling declared that a life-without-parole sentence for a juvenile who did not commit homicide violated the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Brandon Moore received maximum consecutive sentences from Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after he was convicted as an adult for crimes he committed Aug. 21, 2001, when he was 15.
The majority consisted of Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and Justices Judith Ann Lanzinger, William M. O’Neill and Paul E. Pfeifer.
Dissenters were Justices Sharon L. Kennedy, Terrence O’Donnell and Judith L. French.
In the majority opinion, Justice Pfeifer wrote Moore must be provided some chance earlier in his incarceration to “demonstrate maturity and rehabilitation,” but did not specify when that should be.
In her dissenting opinion, Justice Kennedy said Moore’s appeal was untimely and she believes the Graham decision is limited to juveniles specifically sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Moore, now 30, is in the Marion Correctional Institution.
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.
Judge Krichbaum, however, reduced the prison term to 112 years after the Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals ruled some of the firearm specifications had to merge for sentencing purposes.
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.
In a separate case arising from Montgomery County, the state’s top court ruled Thursday that mandatory transfer of juveniles to common pleas courts violates juveniles’ right to due process as guaranteed by the Ohio Constitution.
The court also ruled that Ohio statutes allowing the discretionary transfer of juveniles older than 14 to common pleas courts are constitutional and satisfy due process guaranteed by the state’s constitution.
The decision reverses a 2nd District Court of Appeals ruling and remands the case of a 16-year-old charged in an armed robbery to the Montgomery County juvenile court for an amenability hearing.