Opinion ID: 2428896
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the right to trial by jury

Text: The appellant first contends that his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial was burdened by his having to choose between seeking a severance and risking application of the Habitual Offender Act on the one hand, and not seeking a severance and increasing his chances of conviction when the jury was presented with evidence of the robbery of two stores on the other. He claims that he was entitled to have the counts severed because the offense on April 6, 1991 (Schickel's Cleaners), and the offense of April 9, 1991 (E-Z Mart), were separate and distinct and only joined because they were similar in nature. He urges that under these circumstances he should not be subjected to an enhanced penalty due to a conviction on the severed charge. We begin by noting that it is the prosecuting attorney who has the discretion to file a criminal information under Arkansas law, and only the prosecutor has the authority to amend that information. Ark. Const. amend. 21, § 1; Simpson v. State, 310 Ark. 493, 837 S.W.2d 475 (1992). In this matter, the prosecutor chose to file charges relating to an April 6, 1991 robbery at Schickel's Cleaners in the same felony information with charges for an April 9, 1991 robbery at E-Z Mart. The appellant offers no authority to support his contention that the prosecutor did not have discretion over whether to file one information on the offenses or two informations. Indeed, the law is to the contrary. There is no question that had the prosecutor filed two informations, which was clearly within his authority, the first conviction would have been admissible for enhancement purposes irrespective of the fact that the conduct at issue in the first trial occurred after the conduct at issue in the case at bar. Gillie v. State, 305 Ark. 296, 808 S.W.2d 320 (1991). The appellant was properly found to be a habitual offender as he had two prior felony convictionsan August 25, 1992 conviction, and the November 17, 1992 conviction relating to E-Z Mart. There was no error by the trial court in this regard.