Opinion ID: 2518358
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Multiple Acts Analysis Regarding Kidnapping Charge

Text: In another argument, Kesselring contends there was no unanimous jury verdict on the charge of aggravated kidnapping because there were multiple acts which could have constituted the crime and the jury was not given a unanimity instruction. Kesselring contends the kidnapping could have occurred either when the victim went out onto the porch when Callarman knocked, when the victim was taken to the car, when the victim was returned to the car by Holmes at gunpoint after leaving the car, after the stop at the house when the victim appeared not to be distressed, or when the victim was removed from the car later. In a multiple acts case, several acts are alleged and any one of them could constitute the crime charged. . . . [Citations omitted.] Whether a case is a multiple acts case is a question of law over which this court has unlimited review. [Citation omitted.] State v. Davis, 275 Kan. 107, 115, 61 P.3d 701 (2003). The threshold question in a multiple acts analysis is whether defendant's conduct is part of one act or represents multiple acts which are separate and distinct from each other. State v. Staggs, 27 Kan. App. 2d 865, 867, 9 P.3d 601, rev. denied 270 Kan. 903 (2000). In Staggs, the defendant, who stood convicted by a jury of aggravated battery, argued that some jurors may have found that he kicked the victim, while others may have found that he punched the victim, thereby requiring a unanimity instruction on multiple acts. The Staggs court held: [T]he evidence here supports only a brief time frame in which the aggravated battery occurred. Once defendant initiated the altercation, no break in the action of any length occurred, and the confrontation continued until defendant broke the victim's cheekbone. Simply put, the evidence established a continuous incident that simply cannot be factually separated. No `multiple acts' instruction was necessary. 27 Kan. App. 2d at 868. A parallel analysis is appropriate in this case. The evidence establishes a continuous incident that cannot be factually separated. Incidents are factually separate when independent criminal acts have occurred at different times or when a late criminal act is motivated by `a fresh impulse.' State v. Hill, 271 Kan. 929, 939, 26 P.3d 1267 (2000). Although we have previously used this test as part of the harmless error analysis in Hill, it is also an appropriate test for determining the threshold question of whether multiple acts are involved. In this case, although the events transpired over a longer period of time, there were no breaks in the sequence of events sufficient to establish separate criminal acts. The crime of kidnapping, as compared to the crime of battery involved in Staggs, may occur over a longer period of time. Yet a kidnapping over several hours or days could not be broken into several crimes. Under the facts of this case, the length of time involved does not prevent a finding of a continuous incident. Furthermore, the moving of a kidnapping victim from one location to a car and from the car to another location does not constitute separate acts. Similarly, the fact that Miller was momentarily free when he attempted to escape was not a sufficient interruption to say that a new criminal impulse or new act of kidnapping had occurred. The evidence was that the interruption was not appreciable. If the State had charged Kesselring with separate counts of kidnapping based on each act that Kesselring attempts to separate, the issue of multiplicity could have been justly raised. The incident here was not susceptible to dissection into further components that would constitute multiple acts; rather, it was a continuous incident that cannot be factually separated. Therefore, we find this was not a multiple acts case and no multiple acts instruction was necessary to ensure that the jury's verdict was unanimous.