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State v. Endsley10/19/2005
, the trial court should have suppressed the blood test results. Accordingly, appellant's third assignment of error has merit.
{ } Appellant's fourth assignment of error states:
{ } "THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN FAILING TO SUPPRESS THE RESULTS OF THE DEFENDANT/APPELLANT'S BLOOD ANALYSIS AS CONTAINED IN HIS MEDICAL RECORDS AS THE SAME WERE ILLEGALLY OBTAINED BY THE STATE OF OHIO."
{ } Since we have already concluded that the trial court should have suppressed appellant's blood test results, appellant's fourth assignment of error is moot.
{ } Appellant's fifth assignment of error states:
{ } "THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN OVERRULING THE DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS SPECIFICATION (SUPERCEDING INDICTMENT) DUE TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL INFIRMITY OF THE PRIOR CONVICTION GIVING RISE TO THE SUSPENSION RELIED UPON TO ELEVATE THE PRESENT OFFENSE TO A FELONY OF THE FIRST DEGREE."
{ } Appellant notes that while it is unclear what suspension the indictment refers to, presumably it was meant to refer to his suspension arising out of proceedings in municipal court on November 29, 2001. He filed a transcript of those proceedings with the trial court.
{ } Appellant alleges that at the 2001 hearing, the trial court failed to engage him in a meaningful dialogue in violation of Crim.R. 11(E), regarding the constitutional rights he was waiving by entering a no contest plea to a D.U.I. charge. He further contends that the court failed to discuss with him the possible jail sentence he could receive or the possible license suspension he faced. Next, appellant asserts that the court never heard an explanation of the facts to support its guilty finding. Thus, the court should not have found him guilty based solely on his no contest plea. Therefore, appellant contends that because his conviction in the prior case was constitutionally infirm, it could not be used to enhance the charge of aggravated vehicular homicide from a second-degree to a first-degree felony.
{ } Firstly, appellee may not have been required in this case to demonstrate appellant's prior plea was constitutionally valid. It only needed to demonstrate that appellant's license was indeed suspended at the time of the crash, since that was the aggravating factor.
{ } Secondly, if appellee was required to rely on appellant's prior conviction, State v. Culberson (2001), 142 Ohio App.3d 656, 756 N.E.2d 734, governs this case. In that case, this court held that, "when a criminal defendant is collaterally challenging a prior penalty-enhancing conviction on the basis of constitutional infirmity, the only recognized constitutional infirmity is that he or she was denied the fundamental right to be represented by counsel, or the necessary corollary, an invalid waiver of the right to counsel." Id. at 662-63. In that case, we reversed the trial court's suppression of the defendant's prior D.U.I. convictions. The defendant had argued in the trial court that his pleas to the prior D.U.I.'s were not made knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily. We followed the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Custis v. United States (1994), 511 U.S. 485, 114 S.Ct. 1732, 128 L.Ed.2d 517, which held that a criminal defendant can collaterally challenge the constitutional validity of a prior conviction only on the ground that he was denied the fundamental right to be represented by counsel in the prior proceeding. Culberson, 142 Ohio App.3d at 661, citing Custis, 511 U.S. at 496. We pointed to the Court's reasoning noting that "collateral attacks on previous convictions should be limited to alleged uncounseled prior convictions because (1) there are administrative difficulties in having to rummage through
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