Court rules a maximum of two consecutive prison terms for firearm specifications can be added to a sentence.

Court rules a maximum of two consecutive prison terms for firearm specifications can be added to a sentence.

Ohio law only allows a maximum of two consecutive prison terms for firearm specifications that are added to the sentence of a violent offender, the Supreme Court of Ohio ruled today.

A divided Supreme Court found the Clermont County Common Pleas Court improperly imposed four consecutive three-year firearm specifications to be served by a man convicted of shooting at a group of four people. In 2021, Aunrico Beatty was sentenced to a total of 16 to 18 years in prison. He was sentenced to 12 years of mandatory prison time for firearm specifications that had to be served before a four-to-six-year felonious assault sentence.

Beatty appealed his sentence, arguing that, at most, he could only be sentenced to a total of six years for the firearm convictions, not the 12 years the trial judge imposed.

Writing the Court’s lead opinion, Justice Michael P. Donnelly explained that under Ohio’s criminal sentencing scheme, multiple prison terms must be served concurrently unless an exception applies. The exceptions in R.C. 2929.14(C) and R.C. 2929.41(A) allowed the trial court to impose two consecutive sentences for the firearm specifications, but no more. The third and fourth consecutive sentences issued to Beatty must be served concurrently with the first six years of prison time, the Court concluded.

Justices Melody Stewart and Jennifer Brunner joined Justice Donnelly’s opinion. Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy concurred in judgment only.

Justice Patrick F. Fischer dissented without a written opinion.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Joseph T. Deters maintained the lead opinion renders meaningless the General Assembly's decision to give trial judges the option of imposing additional prison sentences for firearm specifications beyond the first two. He wrote that the prison terms for the specifications that a judge imposes under R.C. 2929.14(B)(1)(g) are mandatory prison terms that must be served consecutively.

Justice R. Patrick DeWine joined Justice Deters’ opinion.

The Court’s decision reversed the Twelfth District Court of Appeals, which affirmed Beatty’s sentence. The case was remanded to the trial court to amend Beatty’s sentence.

2022-1290. State v. Beatty, Slip Opinion No. 2024-Ohio-5684.

View oral argument video of this case.

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