Case Title: Davie v. Edwards

Citation: 1997-Ohio-127

Docket Number: 19970681

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

Document:
DAVIE, APPELLANT, V. EDWARDS, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Cite as Davie v. Edwards (1997), ___ Ohio St.3d ___.] 
Habeas corpus compelling release from Ross Correctional Institution — Petition 
dismissed, when. 
 
(No. 97-681 — Submitted September 9, 1997 — Decided October 29, 
1997.) 
 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Ross County, No. 96CA2207. 
 
According to appellant, Michael D. Davie, in November 1992, after he was 
stopped by police officers in Cleveland for a traffic violation, officers found a 
firearm and other items in his possession, including a checkbook containing an 
Akron, Ohio address.  In April 1993, the Summit County Court of Common Pleas 
convicted Davie of attempted murder, felonious assault, aggravated robbery, and 
aggravated burglary, and sentenced him accordingly. 
 
In April 1996, Davie filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for Ross 
County for a writ of habeas corpus to compel his release from prison.  Davie 
claimed that his sentencing court lacked jurisdiction because the Cuyahoga 
County Court of Common Pleas first obtained jurisdiction over him on a 
concealed weapon charge and that the Summit County court improperly admitted 
evidence from the Cleveland search.  After appellee, Ross Correctional Institution 
Warden Ronald Edwards, filed a Civ.R. 12(B)(6) motion to dismiss, Davie moved 
for leave to amend his petition to include a claim that “he had been convicted on 
an indictment not properly found by a Grand Jury * * *.”  After considering both 
Davie’s petition and motion for leave to amend, the court of appeals granted 
Edwards’s motion and dismissed the petition. 
 
This cause is now before the court upon an appeal as of right. 
__________________ 
 
2
 
Michael D. Davie, pro se. 
 
Betty D. Montgomery, Attorney General, and Lillian B. Earl, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam.  Davie asserts that the court of appeals erred in dismissing his 
habeas corpus petition.  Davie’s main claims, however, merely challenge the 
admissibility of evidence obtained from the Cuyahoga County search in his 
Summit County trial and the validity or sufficiency of his indictment.  These 
claims are not cognizable in habeas corpus, and Davie had an adequate remedy by 
direct appeal to raise them.  Ellis v. State (1953), 158 Ohio St. 489, 49 O.O. 418, 
110 N.E.2d 129 (Petitioner had adequate remedy by appeal to review errors in 
admission and rejection of evidence.); State ex rel. Beaucamp v. Lazaroff (1997), 
77 Ohio St.3d 237, 238, 673 N.E.2d 1273, 1274 (“[F]ollowing conviction and 
sentence, the defendant’s remedy to challenge the validity or sufficiency of the 
indictment is by direct appeal rather than habeas corpus.”). 
 
Davie’s remaining claim, that Cuyahoga County obtained jurisdictional 
priority over him on a concealed weapon charge, is likewise meritless.  Cf., e.g., 
State ex rel. Sellers v. Gerken (1995), 72 Ohio St.3d 115, 117, 647 N.E.2d 807, 
809 (“In general, it is a condition of the operation of the state jurisdictional 
priority rule that the claims or causes of action be the same in both cases * * *.”).  
The Cuyahoga County and Summit County charges, as alleged in Davie’s petition, 
were not the same. 
 
Based on the foregoing, the court of appeals properly dismissed the petition. 
Accordingly, the judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
3
 
MOYER, C.J., DOUGLAS, RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY, PFEIFER, COOK and 
LUNDBERG STRATTON, JJ., concur.