State v. Angi

[Cite as State v. Angi, 2012-Ohio-3840.]
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
STATE OF OHIO :
Plaintiff-Appellee : C.A. CASE NO. 2011 CA 72
v. : T.C. NO. 11CR415
ZACHARY ANGI : (Criminal appeal from
Common Pleas Court)
Defendant-Appellant :
:
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OPINION
Rendered on the 24th day of August , 2012.
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NATHANIEL R. LUKEN, Atty. Reg. No. 0087864, Assistant Prosecutor, 61 Greene Street,
Xenia, Ohio 45385
Attorney for Plaintiff-Appellee
TARA C. DANCING, Atty. Reg. No. 0077277, 1158 Kauffman Avenue, Fairborn, Ohio
45324
Attorney for Defendant-Appellant
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FROELICH, J.
{¶ 1} Zachary Angi appeals from a judgment of the Greene County Court of
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Common Pleas, which, upon his conviction for breaking and entering, concluded that he was
entitled to only seven days of jail time credit.
{¶ 2} For the following reasons, the judgment of the trial court will be affirmed.
{¶ 3} In 2010, Angi was convicted on his guilty plea of three counts of robbery,
one count of possession of criminal tools, and one count of tampering with evidence.
(Greene County Case No. 2010-CR-156). He was sentenced to three years in prison, which
was to be served at the Noble Correctional Institution.
{¶ 4} As a result of his conviction, Angi’s DNA was entered into the State’s DNA
database, whereupon he was linked to – and eventually indicted for – an unsolved crime of
breaking and entering that had occurred in March 2009. In August 2011, Angi was served
with his arrest warrant at the Noble Correctional Institution. Bond was set in the amount of
$5,000, but Angi did not post it.
{¶ 5} Angi entered into a plea agreement with the State on the breaking and
entering charge, whereby he pled guilty in exchange for a stipulated six-month jail sentence,
to be served consecutively to the sentence imposed in Case No. 2010-CR-156. The trial
court accepted the plea and imposed the stipulated sentence. In its judgment entry, the trial
court stated that Angi was entitled to seven days of jail time credit. According to the State,
“[t]hose seven days represented the number of days that [Angi] was outside the [Noble
Correctional] institution for the instant case.” Angi’s motion requesting additional jail time
credit was denied.
{¶ 6} Angi appeals from the trial court’s judgment insofar as it found that he was
entitled to only seven days of jail time credit. Angi claims that he was entitled to 87 days
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of jail time credit (i.e., the time from when he was served with the arrest warrant until he
returned to Noble after his conviction), because that is “the total number of days [he] was
confined in lieu of bail while awaiting trial” on the breaking and entering. (Emphasis sic).
{¶ 7} Where, for whatever reason, a defendant remains in jail prior to his trial, he
must be given credit on the sentence ultimately imposed for all periods of actual
confinement on that charge. State v. Coyle, 2d Dist. Montgomery No. 23450,
2010-Ohio-2130, ¶ 5, citing White v. Gilligan, 351 F.Supp. 1012, 1014 (S.D. Ohio 1972);
State v. Rios, 2d Dist. Clark No. 10 CA 59, 2011-Ohio-4720, ¶ 49-50. This requirement
enforces the Fourteenth Amendment’s right to equal protection of the law. Coyle at ¶ 5,
citing Workman v. Cardwell, 338 F. Supp. 893 (N.D. Ohio 1972).
{¶ 8} R.C. 2967.191 implements the equal protection right with respect to credit
for prior incarceration, as follows:
The adult parole authority shall reduce the minimum and
maximum sentence or the definite sentence of a prisoner by
the total number of days that the prisoner was confined for any
reason arising out of the offense for which he was convicted
and sentenced, including confinement in lieu of bail while
awaiting trial, confinement for examination to determine his
competence to stand trial or sanity, confinement in a
community based correctional facility and program or district
community based correctional facility and program, and
confinement while awaiting transportation to the place where
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he is to serve his sentence.
{¶ 9} We have previously addressed Angi’s argument that, when a defendant is
held in jail in lieu of bond on a new and separate charge, he is entitled to jail time credit even
if he was also being held in jail on a totally unrelated matter during that same time. See,
e.g., State v. Flemings, 2d Dist. Montgomery No. 24615, 2011-Ohio-4286; Rios, 2d Dist.
Clark No. 10 CA 59, 2011-Ohio-4720. We have consistently rejected this argument,
holding that jail time credit is not appropriate where the defendant was serving time for a
separate offense. Other courts have also held that a defendant cannot receive jail time credit
when he serves time for unrelated offenses while in jail awaiting trial on separate charges.
See, e.g., State v. Logan, 71 Ohio App.3d 292, 300, 593 N.E.2d 395 (10th Dist. 1991); State
v. Harper, 6th Dist. Sandusky No. S-10-005, 2010-Ohio-6518, ¶ 13; State v. Marini, 5th
Dist. Tuscarawas No. 09-CA-6, 2009-Ohio-4633, ¶ 22-23.
{¶ 10} Angi’s conviction for breaking and entering in the present case was
unrelated to his prior convictions for robbery, possession of criminal tools, and tampering
with evidence. Thus, he was not entitled to jail time credit on the breaking and entering
charge for days on which he was incarcerated on the other offenses.
{¶ 11} The assignment of error is overruled.
{¶ 12} The judgment of the trial court will be affirmed.
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FAIN, J. and RICE, J., concur.
(Hon. Cynthia Westcott Rice, Eleventh District Court of Appeals, sitting by assignment of
the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio).
Copies mailed to:
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Nathaniel R. Luken
Tara C. Dancing
Hon. Stephen A. Wolaver