A Cleveland-area man who went on a year-long crime spree was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Albert Fontanez challenged the sentence, but the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that he had made a valid guilty plea.
Fontanez committed the following crimes from June 2021 to July 2022:
1. After an argument with a longtime adversary, Fontanez ran him over with his car before punching him several times.
2. At a gas station, Fontanez bashed a car with a baseball bat, pulled the driver out, hit him with the bat, and stole his keys.
3. Fontanez and an accomplice approached a man in a vehicle who was in a dispute with the accomplice over the sale of car rims. They shot at the car and smashed its windows with the bat.
4. Fontanez and several accomplices attacked a man and his girlfriend at an impound lot before driving away with the woman’s phone.
5. Police found Fontanez driving a car that had been reported stolen. He led the officers on a 120-mph chase down the highway before police called off the pursuit for safety reasons.
The state offered to reduce the number of charges from 18 to nine in exchange for a guilty plea.
However, when the victims testified at the sentencing hearing, Fontanez interrupted them. The judge admonished him twice.
The state’s attorney said, “I would like the record to note that as (the victim) was describing his injuries, his issues with his kidney, the tire marks, the Defendant is sitting over there smiling.”
Fontanez apologized for his actions but later asked, “What makes what (the victims) say factual?”
The court explained that pleading guilty meant admitting to the alleged facts. Fontanez moved to withdraw his plea. His attorney said the defendant had “a change of heart.”
The trial judge denied that motion and sentenced Fontanez to 10 years in prison.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision, noting that when “the defendant does not assert actual innocence, we may presume that the defendant understood that his guilty plea was a complete admission of guilt.”
Fontanez took the case to the Ohio Supreme Court, which upheld the ruling in a decision written by Justice Patrick Fischer.
“Given the commonly understood meaning of the term ‘guilty,’ a court may presume that a defendant understands that a guilty plea is a complete admission of guilt when the defendant has decided to plead guilty after being presented with the charges,” he wrote.
