Court orders resentencing in rape case

A sentence of consecutive prison terms for a man convicted of raping a child has been vacated by the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals.
The court remanded the case of Robert Stull, of Green Springs, back to the Sandusky County Common Pleas Court for resentencing.
A jury found Stull guilty in August 2019 of two counts of rape, with the specification the victim was under the age of 10, and two counts of gross sexual imposition involving other victims. He had pled not guilty.
He was sentenced to a mandatory prison term of life without parole each for the rape counts and five years for each of the gross sexual imposition offenses with “each count to run consecutive to the mandatory life sentence imposed on …..” the rape counts.
Citing the Ohio Revised Court, the appeals court wrote: “If multiple prison terms are imposed on an offender for convictions of multiple offenses, the court may require the offender to serve the prison terms consecutively if the court finds that the consecutive service is necessary to protect the public from future crime or to punish the offender and that consecutive sentences are not disproportionate to the seriousness of the offender’s conduct and to the danger the offender poses to the public.”
Other conditions cited by the court, include if the offender committed an offense while awaiting trial or sentencing or was under post-release control for a prior offense.
“When imposing consecutive sentences, a trial court must state the required findings as part of the sentencing hearing. And because a court speaks through its journal …the court should also incorporate its statutory findings into the sentencing entry,” the appeals court wrote. “Appellant (Stull) asserts the trial court failed to make any of the findings required pursuant to Revised Code. After reviewing the sentencing hearing, we agree.”
The appeals court also rejected a recommendation by the prosecutor’s office for remanding the case to the trial court for what is called a nunc pro tunc entry to retroactively include the omitted findings.