State ex rel. Haddix v. Warden , 2023 Ohio 1637 ( 2023 )

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State
ex rel. Haddix v. Warden, Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-1637.]
NOTICE
This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an
advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to
promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65
South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other
formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before
the opinion is published.
SLIP OPINION NO. 2023-OHIO-1637THE STATE EX REL . HADDIX, APPELLANT , v. WARDEN, MADISON
CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, APPELLEE.
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it
may be cited as State ex rel. Haddix v. Warden, Slip Opinion No.
2023-Ohio-1637.]
Habeas corpus—Inmate’s arguments waived for failure to raise them in court of
appeals—Even if trial court failed to issue final, appealable order, inmate
would not be entitled to immediate release from prison—Court of appeals’
judgment denying writ affirmed.
(No. 2022-1262—Submitted February 28, 2023—Decided May 18, 2023.)
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Madison County, No. CA2022-07-015.
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Per Curiam.
{¶ 1} Appellant, Douglas E. Haddix, an inmate at the Madison Correctional
Institution, appeals the judgment of the Twelfth District Court of Appeals denying
his complaint for a writ of habeas corpus against appellee, the warden of the
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institution. Also pending is Haddix’s motion requesting trial transcripts and journal
entries from his underlying criminal case. We deny the motion and affirm the
Twelfth District’s judgment.
Background
{¶ 2} In 1995, the Stark County Grand Jury returned a six-count indictment
against Haddix. Counts one through three were charges of rape involving a child
under the age of 13. The indictment also included one count each of felonious
sexual penetration, gross sexual imposition, and endangering a child. At the close
of the state’s case-in-chief, the trial court dismissed the child-endangering charge.
See State v. Haddix, 5th Dist. Stark No. 95-CA-0175, 1996 WL 363510, *1 (June
3, 1996). The jury acquitted Haddix of the first rape count.
{¶ 3} The trial court’s sentencing entry summarized the jury’s verdicts as
“guilty of the crimes of Rape, 2 Cts.; Felonious Sexual Penetration, 1 Ct., Gross
Sexual Imposition, 1 Ct.; and Endangering Children, 1 Ct.” (Citations omitted.)
The entry did not mention the first count of rape, of which Haddix had been
acquitted, and it did not specify which two counts of rape Haddix had been
convicted of. The entry erroneously stated that the jury had found Haddix guilty of
child endangering, but the trial court did not impose a sentence for that charge.
{¶ 4} The trial court imposed an indeterminate prison sentence of 10 to 25
years on each rape count, to be served concurrently, and terms of 5 to 25 years for
felonious sexual penetration and two years for gross sexual imposition, to be served
consecutively to each other and to the rape sentences. Thus, the trial court
sentenced Haddix to an aggregate term of 17 to 50 years in prison. The Fifth
District Court of Appeals affirmed Haddix’s convictions. Haddix did not challenge
the sentencing entry in his direct appeal.
{¶ 5} In 2012, Haddix filed a motion for resentencing, arguing that he had
been sentenced for a count of rape of which he had been found not guilty. State v.
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January Term, 2023
Haddix, 5th Dist. Stark No. 2012-CA-00218, 2013-Ohio-1974, ¶ 8. The trial court
denied the motion. On appeal, the Fifth District stated:
The original judgment entry of conviction and sentence,
filed on May 2, 1995, did reflect that Haddix was sentenced to an
indeterminate sentence of 10 to 25 years for the second count of
statutory rape. The jury, however, had acquitted Haddix of this
specific count in the indictment.
Id. at ¶ 13. The Fifth District seemingly did not realize that Haddix had been
indicted on three counts of rape and convicted of two of those counts. Despite
finding an error in the sentencing entry, the Fifth District denied relief, stating,
“This entire sentencing entry was corrected by a nunc pro tun[c] entry, filed on May
30, 1995, to correct th[e] error.” Id. Because Haddix could have appealed any error
in his original sentencing entry, the Fifth District concluded that Haddix’s claim
was barred under the doctrine of res judicata. Id. at ¶ 16.
{¶ 6} In November 2021, Haddix filed another motion to vacate his
sentence, suggesting that errors in the original sentencing entry were evidence of
fraud. The Fifth District denied the motion, holding that the nunc pro tunc entry
had corrected the reference to the child-endangering count. The decision did not
directly address any claim by Haddix regarding his rape convictions, but in relating
the background, the Fifth District made a factual error—it indicated that Haddix
had been convicted of counts one and three and acquitted of count two.
{¶ 7} Seizing on that misstatement, in July 2022, Haddix filed the present
complaint for a writ of habeas corpus in the Twelfth District. According to Haddix,
the Fifth District, in its 2013 opinion, stated that Haddix had been sentenced on
count two of the indictment even though he had been acquitted of that count. Based
on this discrepancy, he alleged that the trial court had sentenced him for an offense
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when it lacked jurisdiction to do so. Alternatively, he alleged that the trial court
had unreasonably failed to impose a judgment that satisfied the requirements of
Crim.R. 32.
{¶ 8} The Twelfth District denied the writ. The court held that habeas
corpus did not lie, because the error in the sentencing entry was not jurisdictional
and Haddix had other remedies by which to raise the issue. The court of appeals
also noted that the trial court’s nunc pro tunc entry had cured the error.
{¶ 9} Haddix has appealed.
Analysis
The motion for transcripts and journal entries
{¶ 10} Haddix requests a transcript of the court proceedings from April 28,
1995, asserting that it is necessary to understand “the truth of what occurred” in
court on the day the jury’s verdicts were announced in his case. Alternatively, he
asks us to take judicial notice of several documents, most of which are already part
of the record. We will not expand the record to consider evidentiary materials that
were not before the lower court. See Brown v. Cleveland, 66 Ohio St.2d 93, 98,
420 N.E.2d 103 (1981). We therefore deny Haddix’s motion.
Standard of review
{¶ 11} To be entitled to a writ of habeas corpus, the petitioner must show
that he is being unlawfully restrained of his liberty and that he is entitled to
immediate release from prison or confinement. R.C. 2725.01; State ex rel. Cannon
v. Mohr, 155 Ohio St.3d 213, 2018-Ohio-4184, 120 N.E.3d 776, ¶ 10. A writ of
habeas corpus “is warranted in certain extraordinary circumstances ‘where there is
an unlawful restraint of a person’s liberty and there is no adequate remedy in the
ordinary course of law.’ ” Johnson v. Timmerman-Cooper, 93 Ohio St.3d 614, 616,
757 N.E.2d 1153 (2001), quoting Pegan v. Crawmer, 76 Ohio St.3d 97, 99, 666
N.E.2d 1091 (1996). “[H]abeas corpus is not available when the petitioner has an
adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law, unless a trial court’s judgment is
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January Term, 2023
void for lack of jurisdiction.” State ex rel. Davis v. Turner, 164 Ohio St.3d 395,
2021-Ohio-1771, 172 N.E.3d 1026, ¶ 8.
{¶ 12} We review the denial of a habeas corpus petition de novo. See State
ex rel. Shafer v. Wainwright, 156 Ohio St.3d 559, 2019-Ohio-1828, 130 N.E.3d
268, ¶ 7.
Haddix’s propositions of law
{¶ 13} As his first proposition of law, Haddix argues that his criminal trial
was presided over by a judge “who was not impartial[,] causing [s]tructural [e]rror
and [d]ivesting the trial court of [s]ubject-matter jurisdiction to render a judgment.”
As his second proposition of law, Haddix challenges the validity of the trial court’s
nunc pro tunc entry; he asserts that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to issue it
because the case was on appeal at the time. Because Haddix did not assert these
arguments before the Twelfth District, he has waived them. State ex rel. Barnette
v. Hill, 169 Ohio St.3d 476, 2022-Ohio-2469, 206 N.E.3d 658, ¶ 12 (holding that a
relator in an extraordinary-writ action has waived new claims raised for the first
time on appeal).
{¶ 14} As his third proposition of law, Haddix asserts that the trial court has
never issued a final, appealable order. Even if Haddix is correct, his remedy does
not lie in habeas corpus. A trial court’s failure to comply with Crim.R. 32 does not
entitle an inmate to immediate release from prison. Dunn v. Smith, 119 Ohio St.3d
364, 2008-Ohio-4565, 894 N.E.2d 312, ¶ 10.
Conclusion
{¶ 15} Because the Twelfth District correctly denied Haddix’s petition for a
writ of habeas corpus, we affirm. We deny Haddix’s motion for transcripts and
journal entries.
Judgment affirmed.
KENNEDY, C.J., and FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, BRUNNER,
and DETERS, JJ., concur.
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Douglas E. Haddix, pro se.
Dave Yost, Attorney General, and Stephanie L. Watson, Assistant Attorney
General, for appellee.
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