State v. Spratz

• Decision Date: 02 May 1979
• Docket Number: No. 78-1039,78-1039
• Citation: 12 O.O.3d 77,388 N.E.2d 751,58 Ohio St. 2d 61
• Parties: , 12 O.O.3d 77 The STATE of Ohio, Appellant, v. SPRATZ, Appellee.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

Page 61

58 Ohio St.2d 61

388 N.E.2d 751, 12 O.O.3d 77

The STATE of Ohio, Appellant, v. SPRATZ, Appellee.

No. 78-1039.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

May 2, 1979.

Syllabus by the Court

The time within which an accused must be brought to trial by virtue of R.C. 2945.71 is tolled by the accused's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, whether such plea contemplates insanity at the time of arraignment or insanity at the time the crime was committed. (State v. Walker, 46 Ohio St.2d 157, 346 N.E.2d 687, followed.)

Defendant-appellee Josephine Spratz (aka Dolores Sprand or Dolores Strahad) was arrested on April 18, 1976, and charged with the aggravated murder of Rita Lock, a violation of R.C. 2903.01. She did not make bail. At her arraignment on May 4, 1976, she pled not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was entered in writing in compliance with Crim.R. 11(A) and was otherwise in compliance with Crim.R. 11(H). On May 4, the trial court accepted the pleas and referred the defendant "to the Psychiatric Clinic per R.C. 2945.37 for examination and report." The clinic is the court's own facility in Cleveland. Although the not guilty by reason of insanity plea itself was uncircumscribed, a motion filed by Miss Spratz's attorney in connection with such plea raised the issue of the sanity of the woman at the time of the alleged commission of the crime on April 15, 1976. ¹ The trial court held a pretrial on May 18, 1976, at which time the judge set a trial date of July 12, 1976. The two court-ordered reports from the Psychiatric Clinic were docketed June 8, 1976. After examining the psychiatric evaluations, the defendant moved to withdraw her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and continued to plead "not guilty."

When the case was called for trial on July 12, 1976, the state moved for a continuance because a witness was out of the country and unavailable for trial. The court refused the continuance, but at the request of the state nolled the indictment without prejudice. Miss Spratz was then released from jail after having been incarcerated for a period of 85 days. She was re-indicted on December 6, 1976 ² and a capias issued on December 14. On December 16, 1976, the day prior to her arraignment, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to R.C. 2945.71, alleging that more than 270 days had elapsed since her arrest and incarceration on April 18, 1976. At a hearing on the motion held December 21, the state and defendant agreed that more than 270 days had elapsed from the date of her original arrest on April 18, 1976. Subsequently, on December 28, the court granted defendant's motion to dismiss in compliance with Crim.R. 48. The state appealed the December 28, 1976, dismissal of the case, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment.

The cause is now before this court upon the allowance of a motion for leave to appeal.

John T. Corrigan, Pros. Atty. and Carmen M. Marino, Asst. Pros. Atty., for appellant.

Donald J. O'Connor, Cleveland, for appellee.

KEEFE, Judge.

The central issue raised by this appeal is whether the time between the tendering of a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity and a judicial finding of mental competency to stand trial should be included in computing days under R.C. 2945.71. ³ Thus, we are concerned with the period from May 4 (referral date) to June 8 (when the clinic reported to the court), a total of 35 days. If the 35 days were attributable to appellee's plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, then the state cannot be charged therefor under the speedy trial time period of R.C. 2945.71. Seemingly, State v. Walker (1976), 46 Ohio St.2d 157, 346 N.E.2d 687, is apt and controlling. ⁴ Appellee contends, however, that Walker "does not resemble this case * * * and should be limited to a plea encompassing a Contemporary present state of insanity * * *." (Emphasis added.) We are willing to agree that Walker involved a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity which raised the question of defendant's contemporary mental condition prior to trial, and that in the instant matter the appellee's attorney believed she was not sane at the time of the commission of the crime. For the purposes of R.C. 2945.71, we perceive in appellee's contention only a distinction without a difference. The crime was committed on April 15, and appellee entered her plea of not guilty by reason of insanity approximately three weeks later. The trial court was thus challenged to take the necessary means to ascertain if she was competent to stand trial, and the judge pursued the reasonable and required course by referring her to the Psychiatric Clinic. In other words, the filing of the insanity plea, regardless of whether it was prompted by her attorney's belief that she was not sane when the crime was committed or his belief that she was not sane at arraignment, thus brought to the notice of the trial court that insanity was a defense issue in the cause. R.C. 2945.37 then became relevant with its mandate, at that time, that "if it * * * comes to the notice of the court that such person is not then sane, The court shall proceed to examine into the question of the sanity or insanity of said person * * *." (Emphasis added.) See, also, R.C. 2945.40 which provided procedural guidelines for "any case in which insanity is set up as a defense."

Justice Celebrezze (now Chief Justice) in Walker, supra, at page 161, 346 N.E.2d 687, wrote that the case fell squarely within the strictures of R.C. 2945.72. The same can be said for the matter before us. We include here parts of R.C. 2945.72 which we find especially pertinent, and note parenthetically that the following portions are from the statute as it was structured at the time appellee was ordered to the psychiatric clinic ⁵:

"The time within which an accused must be brought to trial, or, in the case of felony, to preliminary hearing and trial, may be extended only by the following:

"* * *

"(B) Any period during which the accused is mentally incompetent to stand trial, or is physically incapable of standing trial;

"* * * "(E) Any period of delay necessitated by reason of a * * * proceeding, or action made or instituted by the accused;

"* * *

"(G) Any period during which trial is stayed pursuant to an express statutory requirement * * *."

We find that all three cited paragraphs apply to the instant factual situation.

The judgment of the Court of Appeals deciding that the speedy trial time under Ohio statutes was not tolled by the psychiatric referral herein is, therefore, reversed, and the cause is remanded to the Court of Common Pleas for further proceedings according to law. ⁶

Judgment reversed and cause remanded.

CELEBREZZE, C. J., and HERBERT, PAUL W. BROWN, SWEENEY and HOLMES, JJ., concur.

POTTER, J., dissents.

KEEFE, J., of the First Appellate District, sitting for WILLIAM B. BROWN, J.

POTTER, J., of the Sixth Appellate District, sitting for LOCHER, J.

POTTER, Justice, dissenting.

I would affirm the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the reason expressed in its journal entry and opinion that the state did not have a right to appeal from the lower court's dismissal of the criminal charges based on the failure to comply with the speedy trial statute. See former R.C. 2945.68 and 2945.70; see, also State v. Sonnie (1975), 46 Ohio App.2d 164, 346 N.E.2d 791, to the same effect, and cases therein cited.

I would also affirm for the following reasons. As the majority opinion states, the state and defendant agreed in the trial court that more than 270 days had elapsed from the date of defendant's arrest on April 18, 1976. Apparently, in the trial court, the state added the days from December 6, 1976, the date of the re-indictment, to December 21, 1976, to the prior jail time. Now the state is contending that by counting only the bail days from December 17th, the date of arraignment, to December 21, 1976, the total time elapsed is 263 days. Nevertheless, the main argument of the state and the sole issue decided by the majority opinion is that the speedy trial time was tolled. The issue that the speedy trial time was tolled by reason of the time elapsing between the tendering of a...