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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2010 > February > 19 > Entry
Convicted robber loses bid to get his pleas vacated
DAYTON — The suspect in a series of major crimes during the summer of 2007, who pleaded guilty to all indicted charges, failed in his bid to get those pleas vacated.
Retired Judge William H. Wolff, Jr. found that Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Singer did not make any promises about sentencing to Anthony Seals.
Seals, 38, has been in prison since November 2008, when Singer gave him a 25-year sentence.
Last year, the county Public Defender’s Office filed a petition for post-conviction relief, arguing that Seals was unable to make a “knowing intelligent and voluntary plea,” because Singer’s off-record statements led Seals to believe he would get a 15-year sentence.
But during a Jan. 28 hearing on the issue, Seals acknowleged that he understood Singer had made no promises, and “he conceded, in a response to a question by the state, that in pleading guilty he took a calculated risk as to his sentence,” Wolff wrote in his decision, which was handed down Tuesday, Feb. 16.
Seals asked that his guilty pleas and sentence be set aside, which would take the case back to right after the indictment phase, allowing him to negotiate another plea or to go to trial.
Seals was a suspect in several robberies when a Riverside police officer spotted him driving on Woodman Drive on July 20, 2007. Seals then led police on a chase, sometimes at speeds higher than 100 mph.
Seals fled into the city of Dayton. He crashed into a building at 28 Burkhardt Road. He jumped out of the vehicle and ran. Dayton and Riverside officers caught him behind 136 Martz Ave., using a Taser on him as he tried to climb a fence.
Ten days later, a grand jury indicted Seals on 15 felony charges, including eight first-degree felonies: three counts of kidnapping, four counts of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary.
On Sept. 18, 2007, the grand jury added another charge: a first-degree count of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer.
Seals was facing a potential aggregate sentence of more than 100 years, according to Wolff’s decision.
The case was set for trial on Nov. 4, 2008. That day, the two sides were unable to reach an agreement during off-record discussions in Singer’s chambers. Seals was represented by Ronald Keller.
“The judge did, however, twice state to defense counsel, Mr. Keller, that the sentence would be somewhere between 14 and 21 years, but closer to 14,” according to the petition. “Mr. Keller told Mr. Seals what the judge had said. Based on the belief that he would receive no more than 15 years in prison, Mr. Seals pleaded guilty to all charges.”
Dewar included affidavits from Keller and Richard Skelton, another defense attorney whom Keller asked to sit in during the discussions in Singer’s chambers. Keller’s statement reflects the version of events in Dewar’s petition. Skelton’s differs in one respect: he remembers Singer indicating a range of 13 to either 18 or 20 years, but the number would be closer to 13.
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