Woman convicted in Lebanon Realtor’s death needs to be resentenced

Judge: Deadly police chase defendant ‘lit the fuse’ for Lebanon Realtor’s death

She was sentenced by Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Michael Krumholtz to serve 11 years on the manslaughter charge and 18 months each on the other charges back-to-back-to-back instead of at the same time.

Irwin-Debraux appealed that sentence, arguing the judge didn’t follow the procedure laid out in state law and that the sentence she received was “cruel and unusual.”

The appeals court stopped short of saying the sentence was cruel and unusual. But it did say the judge needs to take a revised code into consideration before sentencing her to serve the sentences consecutively.

“We find that the trial court erred by ordering Irwin-Debraux to serve terms in prison for grand theft of a motor vehicle and involuntary manslaughter in the absence of the findings required by R.C. 2929.14(C)(4), but otherwise, we find that her arguments lack merit,” the appeals court said. “Therefore, the case is remanded to the trial court for resentencing consistent with this opinion. In all other respects, Irwin-Debraux’s convictions are affirmed.”

Under the statute, the appeals court said, when a defendant is convicted of more than one offense and is sentenced to a term of imprisonment for each of the offenses, the judge may require the offender to serve consecutive sentences, but the presumption is in favor of concurrent sentences — meaning the prison time be served all at once.

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However, should the trial court find that consecutive sentences are necessary to protect the public from future crime or to punish the offender and that consecutive sentences are not disproportionate to the seriousness of the offenders’ conduct, the trial court can issue a consecutive sentence.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Spokesman Greg Flannagan said the office expects Irwin-Debraux to serve the 13-year punishment, but the judge will have to put the required findings on the record before sentencing her again.

The resentencing date has not been set, according to the case’s docket. Defense attorney Matthew Suellentrop did not respond to a request for comment.