Title: State ex rel. Missimer v. Forshey

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State 
ex rel. Missimer v. Forshey, Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-2355.] 
 
 
 
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. 2023-OHIO-2355 
THE STATE EX REL. MISSIMER, APPELLANT, v. FORSHEY, WARDEN, 
APPELLEE. 
[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it 
may be cited as State ex rel. Missimer v. Forshey,  
Slip Opinion No. 2023-Ohio-2355.] 
Habeas corpus—Inmate failed to file complete records of his incarcerations and 
releases as required by R.C. 2725.04(D)—Court of appeals’ judgment 
granting warden’s motion to dismiss affirmed. 
(No. 2023-0026—Submitted May 16, 2023—Decided July 13, 2023.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Noble County, 
No. 22 NO 0495, 2022-Ohio-4759. 
__________________ 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} While incarcerated at the Noble Correctional Institution, appellant, 
Donald L. Missimer Jr., filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the Seventh 
District Court of Appeals against appellee, Warden Jay Forshey.  The court of 
appeals granted Forshey’s motion to dismiss, and Missimer has appealed.  We 
affirm. 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
 
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 
{¶ 2} In September 1992, Missimer pleaded guilty to burglary in the 
Licking County Court of Common Pleas and was sentenced to 3 to 15 years in 
prison. 
{¶ 3} Missimer avers that he was first released on parole in May 1999.  
Between 1999 and 2004, Missimer was arrested and his parole was revoked several 
times, and he was sentenced to ten months in prison for passing bad checks.  He 
avers that he then served a 17-year sentence in New York, that he was returned to 
an Ohio correctional facility in June 2021, and that he has now served more than 
12 years for his 1992 burglary conviction. 
{¶ 4} In July 2022, Missimer filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in 
the Seventh District, seeking his immediate release from prison.  He argued that the 
burglary offense of which he was originally convicted carried a maximum prison 
term of ten years, not the 15 years to which he was sentenced, and that his maximum 
sentence had thus expired.  Forshey filed a motion to dismiss, which Missimer 
opposed.  The court of appeals granted Forshey’s motion, and Missimer has 
appealed to this court as of right. 
ANALYSIS 
{¶ 5} Generally, a writ of habeas corpus is available only when the 
petitioner’s maximum sentence has expired and he is being held unlawfully, 
Leyman v. Bradshaw, 146 Ohio St.3d 522, 2016-Ohio-1093, 59 N.E.3d 1236, ¶ 8, 
or when the sentencing court patently and unambiguously lacked subject-matter 
jurisdiction, Stever v. Wainwright, 160 Ohio St.3d 139, 2020-Ohio-1452, 154 
N.E.3d 55, ¶ 8.  Habeas corpus is not available when the petitioner has an adequate 
remedy in the ordinary course of law, unless the trial court’s judgment is void for 
lack of jurisdiction.  State ex rel. Davis v. Turner, 164 Ohio St.3d 395, 2021-Ohio-
1771, 172 N.E.3d 1026, ¶ 8. 
January Term, 2023 
3 
 
{¶ 6} This court reviews de novo a court of appeals’ decision granting a 
motion to dismiss in a habeas corpus action.  State ex rel. Parker v. Black, 168 Ohio 
St.3d 368, 2022-Ohio-1730, 198 N.E.3d 860, ¶ 6. 
{¶ 7} Here, the court of appeals found that Missimer did not comply with 
R.C. 2725.04(D), which requires a habeas petitioner to attach “[a] copy of the 
commitment or cause of detention of such person * * * if it can be procured without 
impairing the efficiency of the remedy.”  A petitioner’s failure to include complete 
records of his incarcerations and releases is fatal to his habeas petition.  State ex 
rel. Miller v. May, 161 Ohio St.3d 8, 2020-Ohio-3248, 160 N.E.3d 707, ¶ 8-9.  
“When a petitioner has more than one pertinent conviction, he must attach all the 
pertinent commitment papers to his habeas corpus petition.”  State ex rel. Hawkins 
v. Hass, 141 Ohio St.3d 98, 2014-Ohio-5196, 21 N.E.3d 1060, ¶ 5.  In addition, 
commitment papers concerning parole revocations must be attached if they are 
relevant to the sentence calculation.  State ex rel. Crigger v. Ohio Adult Parole 
Auth., 82 Ohio St.3d 270, 272, 695 N.E.2d 254 (1998). 
{¶ 8} The court of appeals was correct in finding that Missimer did not 
comply with the requirements of R.C. 2725.04(D).  Missimer attached to his 
petition the journal entry sentencing him for the 1992 burglary conviction, but he 
did not attach any records relating to his parole releases, parole revocations, or 
subsequent convictions.  In addition, the 1992 journal entry states that the burglary 
sentence was to be served consecutively to the sentence imposed in another case.  
Missimer did not attach any information regarding that other case.  Because records 
relating to that case are needed to properly evaluate Missimer’s claim, this defect 
alone was a valid basis to dismiss Missimer’s petition. 
 
 
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
4 
 
CONCLUSION 
{¶ 9} Missimer did not attach to his petition complete records of his 
incarcerations and releases as required by R.C. 2725.04(D).  Therefore, the court 
of appeals correctly dismissed his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. 
Judgment affirmed. 
KENNEDY, C.J., and FISCHER, DEWINE, DONNELLY, STEWART, BRUNNER, 
and DETERS, JJ., concur. 
__________________ 
Donald L. Missimer Jr., pro se. 
Dave Yost, Attorney General, and Maura O’Neill Jaite, Assistant Attorney 
General, for appellee. 
________________________