Case Title: State ex rel. Cowell v. Croce

Citation: 2019-Ohio-2844

Docket Number: 2019-0178

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2019-07-16T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State 
ex rel. Cowell v. Croce, Slip Opinion No. 2019-Ohio-2844.] 
 
 
 
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. 2019-OHIO-2844 
THE STATE EX REL. COWELL, APPELLANT, v. CROCE, JUDGE, APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as State ex rel. Cowell v. Croce, Slip Opinion No.  
2019-Ohio-2844.] 
Mandamus—Appellant had adequate remedy at law by way of appeal of sentence—
Court of appeals’ dismissal of complaint affirmed. 
(No. 2019-0178—Submitted June 11, 2019—Decided July 16, 2019.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Summit County, No. 29199. 
__________________ 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} Appellant, Joshua R. Cowell, is serving consecutive prison terms for 
four offenses.  He filed an original action in the Ninth District Court of Appeals 
seeking a writ of mandamus to compel appellee, Judge Christine Croce, to vacate 
his sentences, merge certain offenses, and resentence him.  The court of appeals 
dismissed Cowell’s complaint, and he has appealed here as of right.  We affirm. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
 
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{¶ 2} In 2011, Cowell pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary, felonious 
assault, rape, and kidnapping.  The trial court imposed a prison term for each 
offense and ordered the terms to be served consecutively, for an aggregate term of 
25 years.  Cowell did not appeal. 
{¶ 3} In October 2018, Cowell filed his mandamus action in the court of 
appeals, arguing that some of his offenses are allied offenses that should have been 
merged at sentencing and that the trial court failed to make statutorily required 
findings before imposing consecutive sentences.  The court of appeals determined 
that Cowell had an adequate remedy at law and dismissed the complaint. 
{¶ 4} To be entitled to a writ of mandamus, Cowell must establish a clear 
legal right to the requested relief, a clear legal duty on the part of Judge Croce to 
provide that relief, and the lack of an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the 
law.  State ex rel. Waters v. Spaeth, 131 Ohio St.3d 55, 2012-Ohio-69, 960 N.E.2d 
452, ¶ 6.  The court of appeals was correct in determining that Cowell did not lack 
an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law, because he could have raised 
his claims by appealing his sentence. 
{¶ 5} As a general matter, sentencing errors may not be remedied through 
an extraordinary writ, because the defendant usually has or had “an adequate 
remedy at law available by way of direct appeal.”  State ex rel. Ridenour v. 
O’Connell, 147 Ohio St.3d 351, 2016-Ohio-7368, 65 N.E.3d 742, ¶ 3.  Cowell’s 
consecutive-sentence claim falls within this general rule.  See id. 
{¶ 6} So, too, does his allied-offense claim.  The trial court found that 
Cowell’s offenses were separate and should not be merged at sentencing.  When a 
sentencing court makes such a finding, “ ‘imposing a separate sentence for each 
offense is not contrary to law and any error must be asserted in a timely appeal or 
it will be barred by principles of res judicata.’ ”  State ex rel. Cowan v. Gallagher, 
153 Ohio St.3d 13, 2018-Ohio-1463, 100 N.E.3d 407, ¶ 20, quoting State v. 
January Term, 2019 
 
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Williams, 148 Ohio St.3d 403, 2016-Ohio-7658, 71 N.E.3d 234, ¶ 26.  Thus, 
mandamus will not lie as a substitute for the appeal Cowell did not take. 
Judgment affirmed. 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and KENNEDY, FRENCH, FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, 
and STEWART, JJ., concur. 
_________________ 
Joshua R. Cowell, pro se. 
Sherri Bevan Walsh, Summit County Prosecuting Attorney, and Colleen 
Sims, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee. 
_________________