Case Title: Waters v. Wolfe

Citation: 2007-Ohio-3761

Docket Number: 20070371

State: ohio

Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Date: 2007-08-08T00:00:00Z

Document:
[Cite as Waters v. Wolfe, 114 Ohio St.3d 151, 2007-Ohio-3761.] 
 
 
WATERS, APPELLANT, v. WOLFE, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Cite as Waters v. Wolfe, 114 Ohio St.3d 151, 2007-Ohio-3761.] 
Appeal from dismissal of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus – Judgment 
affirmed. 
(No. 2007-0371 ─ Submitted July 10, 2007 ─ Decided August 8, 2007.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Noble County, 
No. 06 NO 336, 2007-Ohio-358. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing a petition for a writ 
of habeas corpus.  Because the petition fails to state a viable habeas corpus claim, 
we affirm. 
{¶ 2} In September 2006, appellant, Kirk Waters, filed a petition in the 
Court of Appeals for Noble County for a writ of habeas corpus to compel 
appellee, Noble Correctional Institution Warden Jeffrey A. Wolfe, to release him 
from prison.  Waters claimed that his Butler County, Ohio convictions and 
aggregate sentence were invalid because his trial court lacked jurisdiction to try 
him on charges that were not the subject of his extradition from Kentucky.  
Waters asserted that he had waived extradition only to face charges in Clermont 
County, Ohio.  Waters’s petition was not properly verified in accordance with 
R.C. 2725.04, and Waters did not file with his petition an affidavit describing the 
civil actions filed by him in the previous five years as required by R.C. 
2969.25(A). 
{¶ 3} After the warden filed a motion to dismiss, Waters filed motions to 
amend his petition to include a verification and an affidavit describing his 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
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previously filed civil actions.  The court of appeals granted the warden’s motion 
and dismissed the petition. 
{¶ 4} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.  Waters asserts 
that the court of appeals should have permitted Waters to amend his petition to 
comply with R.C. 2725.04 and 2969.25(A).  See, e.g., Gaskins v. Shiplevy (1995), 
74 Ohio St.3d 149, 150, 656 N.E.2d 1282 (Civ.R. 15(A), regarding the 
amendment of pleadings in a civil action, is not clearly inapplicable to habeas 
corpus proceedings); Snitzky v. Wilson, Trumbull App. No. 2003-T-0095, 2004-
Ohio-7229, ¶ 37 (habeas corpus petitioner not barred from amending petition for 
writ of habeas corpus pursuant to Civ.R. 15(A) to comply with filing requirements 
of R.C. 2969.25(A)). 
{¶ 5} Nevertheless, regardless of whether Waters is correct on this point, 
his petition still failed to state a viable habeas corpus claim.  The Butler County 
trial court possessed the requisite jurisdiction to try Waters on the offenses in 
Butler County even though he had been extradited from Kentucky on the 
Clermont County offenses, because R.C. 2963.26 provides that “[a] person 
returned to this state by, or after waiver of, extradition proceedings, may be tried 
in this state for other crimes which he may be charged with having committed 
here, as well as that specified in the requisition for his extradition.”  State ex rel. 
Childs v. Wingard (1998), 83 Ohio St.3d 346, 348, 699 N.E.2d 1278.  Therefore, 
once Waters waived extradition to Ohio on the Clermont County charges, R.C. 
2963.26 authorized the Butler County Common Pleas Court to try him for other 
crimes committed in Ohio. 
{¶ 6} Therefore, the court of appeals correctly denied Waters’s petition, 
and we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
MOYER, C.J., PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O’CONNOR, O’DONNELL, 
LANZINGER and CUPP, JJ., concur. 
January Term, 2007 
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______________________ 
 
Kirk Waters, pro se. 
 
Marc Dann, Attorney General, and Thelma Thomas Price, Assistant 
Attorney General, for appellee. 
______________________