Case Title: State ex rel. Smith v. Schweitzer

Citation: 2018-Ohio-2396

Docket Number: 

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2018-06-28T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State 
ex rel. Smith v. Schweitzer, Slip Opinion No. 2018-Ohio-2396.] 
 
 
 
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. 2018-OHIO-2396 
THE STATE EX REL. SMITH, APPELLANT, v. SCHWEITZER, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as State ex rel. Smith v. Schweitzer, Slip Opinion No.  
2018-Ohio-2396.] 
Habeas corpus—Prison sentences run consecutively by operation of statute—
Immediate release denied, and judgment affirmed. 
(No. 2017-1331—Submitted January 23, 2018—Decided June 28, 2018.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Warren County, No. CA2017-05-074. 
________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} Appellant, Herbert Allen Smith, appeals the dismissal of his petition 
for a writ of habeas corpus that he filed against appellee, Thomas Schweitzer, 
warden of the Lebanon Correctional Facility, where Smith is incarcerated.  We 
affirm. 
 
 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
2
Background 
{¶ 2} In 1977, Smith was convicted of kidnapping and was sentenced to 5 
to 15 years in prison.  On August 3, 1981, he was released on parole.  While under 
supervision, he committed a new felony.  Between December 2, 1981, and May 7, 
1991, he was a parole violator at large.  On October 17, 1994, Smith pleaded guilty 
to one count of robbery.  The common pleas court judge sentenced him to 6 to 15 
years’ imprisonment.  The sentencing entry did not indicate whether this term was 
to be served concurrently with or consecutively to the time remaining on his 
kidnapping sentence. 
{¶ 3} Smith received parole a second time in 2005 and escaped detention.  
He remained at large for the next six years, until he returned to confinement in 
September 2012. 
{¶ 4} On May 22, 2017, Smith filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus 
against Schweitzer, alleging that Smith had now served more than 15 years on his 
robbery sentence and was therefore entitled to immediate release.  Smith asserted 
that he had also completed his sentence on the original kidnapping charge because, 
he said, the two sentences had run concurrently, and the Department of 
Rehabilitation and Correction has no authority to alter a prison sentence. 
{¶ 5} On August 29, 2017, the Twelfth District Court of Appeals granted 
Schweitzer’s motion to dismiss, concluding that Smith was not entitled to 
immediate release because his sentences ran consecutively by operation of law.  
State ex rel. Smith v. Schweitzer, 12th Dist. Warren No. CA2017-05-074 (Aug. 29, 
2017).  Smith appealed. 
Analysis 
{¶ 6} Smith claims that he is entitled to a writ of habeas corpus because he 
has served more than 16 years’ imprisonment on a 15-year prison sentence.  He 
blames the department for unilaterally extending his sentence by running his two 
January Term, 2018 
 
3
terms consecutively without judicial sanction.  The first issue to resolve, then, is 
whether the two sentences were consecutive or concurrent. 
{¶ 7} In 1994, when Smith received his second sentence, the Revised Code 
stated: 
 
A sentence of imprisonment shall be served consecutively to 
any other sentence of imprisonment, in the following cases: 
* * * 
(3) 
When it is imposed for a new felony 
committed by a probationer, parolee, or escapee. 
 
See former R.C. 2929.41(B), Sub.H.B. No. 51, 142 Ohio Laws, Part I, 1875, 1885.  
Because Smith was on parole when he reoffended, his sentences ran consecutively 
by operation of the statute, even though the sentencing entry was silent.  See, e.g., 
State ex rel. Thompson v. Kelly, 137 Ohio St.3d 32, 2013-Ohio-2444, 997 N.E.3d 
498, ¶ 8-10 (holding that consecutive sentences for offenses committed while on 
parole were mandatory); see also Richards v. Eberlin, 7th Dist. Belmont No. 04-
BE-1, 2004-Ohio-2636, ¶ 10 (same). 
{¶ 8} Based on this law, it is clear that the department did not change 
Smith’s sentence or aggregate his sentences on its own initiative.  The court of 
appeals correctly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus. 
Judgment affirmed. 
O’CONNOR, C.J., and O’DONNELL, KENNEDY, FRENCH, FISCHER, and 
DEWINE, JJ., concur. 
DEGENARO, J., not participating. 
_________________ 
Herbert Allen Smith, pro se. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
 
4
Michael DeWine, Attorney General, and Jerri L. Fosnaught, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
_________________