Attorneys for Nicholas R. Schwieterman, 23, requested the hearing in July, claiming the 24-year prison term imposed on the Chickasaw man in the deaths of four Mercer County teens was cruel and unusual punishment. Columbus-based attorney Eric J. Allen also argued that Mercer County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Ingraham erred in imposing nonminimum, consecutive prison terms on each count. In his brief filed in July, Allen cited a 2000 court case in Mercer County where a defendant received a six-year prison term in the deaths of two during a boating crash involving alcohol and a 2007 Van Wert County case where a defendant received a total of 10 years in prison for two deaths in support of his argument.
Schwieterman was sentenced to six years in prison on each count of involuntary manslaughter and ordered to serve the terms consecutively for a total of 24 years for his role in the deaths of Jordan Diller, 19, of Maria Stein; Jordan Moeller, 18, of Celina; Jordan Goettemoeller, 19, of Maria Stein and Bradley Roeckner, 19, of Celina. A first-degree felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Mercer County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Matt Fox rejected those claims in an August brief filed in the Ohio Supreme Court. Fox argued the sentence was not cruel and unusual and deemed it appropriate because it fell within the range available to a judge under sentencing guidelines in the Ohio Revised Code.
"This latest rejection of Schwieterman's assertion properly denied Schwieterman's claims for jurisdiction to the Ohio Supreme Court and validates the lawfulness of the prison sentence pronounced in the trial court as previously affirmed by the Third District Court of Appeals," Fox said in a written statement to The Evening Leader. "The Mercer County Prosecutor's Office is satisfied with the decision and (is) committed to continuing to see that justice is served in this case."
The rejection is the latest decision to go against Schwieterman this year. In April, Allen argued in front of judges from the Third District Court of Appeals in Lima regarding the prison sentence. On May 18, judges affirmed the sentence and rejected similar arguments contained within Allen's brief to the Supreme Court.
In July, Ingraham denied a request for an evidence hearing on the matter. Allen appealed that decision to the Third District Court of Appeals in Lima. That matter is still pending.
The case stemmed from a March 15, 2008, collision at the intersection of County Road 716A and Brockman Road in Mercer County. Schwieterman, who admitted to drinking and snorting cocaine earlier in the night, had a blood alcohol content of 0.134 and was under the influence of cocaine and marijuana at the time of the collision. 

Read more in Thursday's edition of The Evening Leader.
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