After her 2012 trial, Eva Christian stood sentenced to a nine-year prison term on the corrupt activity count, and an aggregate seven-year prison term on the four remaining counts (false alarms and insurance fraud), which were to run concurrently. The first decision by the Court of Appeals (2014) dismissed the most serious felony count and cut Christian’s sentencing ceiling in half.
After this second review by the Second District Court of Appeals, the previously dismissed count of corrupt activity was reinstated, based on a new standard handed down by the Ohio Supreme Court, but was reinstated instead as a felony of the second degree, because the government had not met their burden of proof on the severity of the lesser charges. The Court’s first decision, reducing many of the other charges, still stands.
Eva now faces a resentencing scheme with nearly all of her convictions having been reduced. However, technically the nine-year aggregate sentence that she originally received is still within that new potential sentencing range. Regardless of the result at resentencing, we will ask the Ohio Supreme Court to address her case on the sufficiency of the facts on the reinstated corrupt activity count.
Full Dayton Daily News Story here.
