Opinion ID: 891704
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Preservation of an Improper Joinder Claim

Text: {27} We must resolve the State's claim that Defendant failed to preserve the joinder issue. Rule 12-216(A) NMRA states, in part, that [t]o preserve a question for review it must appear that a ruling or decision by the [trial] court was fairly invoked, but formal exceptions are not required, nor is it necessary to file a motion for a new trial to preserve questions for review. In State v. Lopez, this Court reiterated that [i]n order to preserve an issue for appeal, a defendant must make a timely objection that specifically apprises the trial court of the nature of the claimed error and invokes an intelligent ruling thereon. 2007-NMSC-037, ¶ 15, 142 N.M. 138, 164 P.3d 19; see Rule 12-216(A). The State claims that Defendant failed to preserve the joinder issue at the trial court level because Defendant did not invoke a ruling that the joinder of charges was an abuse of prosecutorial discretion or an act incompatible with the prosecutors' duty to seek justice. Therefore the State argues that the only issue on appeal is Defendant's motion to sever claim. {28} In Gammill, the Court of Appeals concluded that the defendant waived his improper joinder claim because he failed to raise the issue at the pretrial motion hearing. 102 N.M. at 654, 699 P.2d at 127. In Jacobs, this Court held that the defendant failed to preserve an improper joinder claim at trial because he argued only that the jury would misuse the evidence, not that joinder was improper under Rule 5-203(A). 2000-NMSC-026, ¶ 12, 129 N.M. 448, 10 P.3d 127. Accordingly, to preserve an improper joinder claim a defendant must raise the claim prior to trial pursuant to Rule 5-601(C) and ground his claim in the criteria enumerated in Rule 5-203(A). {29} Defendant's motion to sever was filed prior to trial and followed the criteria of Rule 5-203(A). The trial judge entered an order, prior to trial, denying Defendant's motion on December 6, 2007. The record on appeal is incomplete in that it does not include a transcript or a recording of the hearing on Defendant's motion for severance. Where there is a doubtful or deficient record, every presumption must be indulged by the reviewing court in favor of the correctness and regularity of the [trial] court's judgment. State v. Rojo, 1999-NMSC-001, ¶ 53, 126 N.M. 438, 971 P.2d 829 (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). {30} The grounds stated for requesting severance of the drug trafficking charge referred expressly to Rule 5-203(A), that the drug trafficking charge was not of a similar character to the others, [t]he facts supporting it [did] not form part of a single scheme or plan involving the other charges, and [t]he facts supporting it [did] not form part of the same conduct or series of acts as that supporting the other charges. Defendant was not basing his objection on the prejudice he would suffer as a result of proper joinder under Rule 5-203(C), but rather on the State's improper joinder of charges under Rule 5-203(A). {31} The fact that Defendant entitled his motion Motion to Sever is not persuasive because [t]he manner in which the relief is requested and the nomenclature used is not significant. Phelps Dodge Corp. v. Guerra, 92 N.M. 47, 50, 582 P.2d 819, 822 (1978); see also Century Bank v. Hymans, 120 N.M. 684, 689, 905 P.2d 722, 727 (Ct.App.1995) (The movant need not cite the provision authorizing the motion; the substance of the motion, not its title, controls.). The nature of Defendant's motion to sever was based on a violation of Rule 5-203(A) with no substantive reference to Rule 5-203(C). Prior to trial, Defendant filed a withdrawal of his motion to sever count four, because a new indictment had been returned and the original count four drug trafficking charge was renumbered to count nine. In the withdrawal, Defendant reserv[ed] his right to challenge the improper joinder of the charge. It is clear that Defendant properly preserved his Rule 5-203(A) improper joinder claim.