Lima residents Jason Raines, far left, and Timothy Messer, at the far right, received suspended 180-day jail sentences Tuesday following their recent pleas of guilty to misdemeanor arson charges.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — Two Lima men originally charged with second-degree felony counts of arson avoided jail time Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this month to misdemeanor charges.
Tim Messer, 65, and Jason Raines, 53, were indicted in October 2020 on one count of aggravated arson, a second-degree felony, for allegedly starting a fire last summer at a South Dixie Highway residence. Their cases had been joined and the duo was scheduled to be tried in front of the same jury before a settlement in the cases was reached.
A plea deal offered by prosecutors was a point of contention during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing after representatives from the Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center filed documents with the court claiming the victim in the case had been denied his constitutional right to weigh in on any proposed settlement.
Latina Bailey, a victims’ right attorney with the justice center, said Jack Cornelius — whose home burned to the ground in the June 6, 2020 fire on South Dixie Highway — had not been notified of a hearing in Allen County Common Pleas Court that resulted in the two defendants pleading guilty to misdemeanor arson charges.
Bailey said the Ohio Revised Code requires that victims be given notice of such hearings and be allowed to be heard at that time. She said Cornelius was not given that opportunity.
“We are asking, your honor, that you re-open this plea. We believe the plea deal is not final and is a violation of the victim’s rights under the Ohio constitution,” Bailey told Judge Terri Kohlrieser.
The judge said the court “did not willfully violate the constitution” and said that representatives of Crime Victim Services routinely notify victims of court hearings. “Apparently (the victim) was not notified and therefore he was not present” at the hearing during which plea deals were offered to the defendants, she said.
Kohlrieser, basing her decision on existing case law, said the error did not rise to the level of requiring that the pleas be set aside. She said confusion in a new law that took effect earlier this month resulted in the mix-up, but further noted that “the law is created in such a way that it doesn’t provide a remedy.”
She proceeded with sentencing for Messer and Raines, handing both men a 180-day jail term and then conditionally suspending that sentence on first-degree misdemeanor charges. Each is to serve two years on community control and to have no contact with the victim. The defendants were each ordered to pay $15,315 in restitution.
Kurt McVay from the Ohio Public Defenders Office, representing Raines, said the plea offer “made sense” because two separate fire examiners said the cause of the blaze was undetermined.
Neither Messer nor Raines made statements at the hearing. Both were classified as arson offenders and are required to register annually with local law enforcement for the remainder of their lives.
