Opinion ID: 1993991
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Merger of Counts 5 and 6

Text: Although we also are satisfied that whether count 6 (felony assaultassault or battery resulting in serious bodily injury) merged with count 5 (felony assaultassault with a dangerous weapon), therefore implicating the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the United States and Rhode Island Constitutions was not preserved, we nonetheless address this argument. We have held that a defense based upon double jeopardy must be raised in a pretrial motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(2) of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure. See State v. Day, 925 A.2d 962, 977 (R.I.2007). Rule 12(b)(2) provides that [t]he defense of double jeopardy    may be raised only by motion before trial. See also Day, 925 A.2d at 977; State v. Grayhurst, 852 A.2d 491, 500 (R.I.2004). Rule 12(b)(2) further states that [f]ailure to present any such defense or objection as herein provided constitutes a waiver thereof, but the court for cause shown may grant relief from the waiver. See also State v. McGuy, 841 A.2d 1109, 1115 (R.I. 2003) (stressing defendant needs to demonstrate some compelling reason to grant relief from the waiver sanction of Rule 12(b)(2)). [13] In this case, defendant did not file a Rule 12(b)(2) motion to dismiss. Therefore, defendant is barred from raising double jeopardy as a defense unless he can demonstrate some extraordinary justification for not doing so earlier. On the other hand, defendant's trial occurred in 2005, almost two years before the Day decision made the law explicitly clear. Cf. Day, 925 A.2d at 977 (holding that cause existed in part because of murkiness in the case law on this issue). Further, although no motion was filed under Rule 12, the trial justice nonetheless entertained argument on this issue when he heard defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal and he ruled on the issue. Under all the circumstances present here, it is our opinion that defendant's double-jeopardy claim, although not properly raised, should be considered by this Court. To determine whether a criminal defendant is imperiled by double jeopardy, this Court applies the same evidence test first pronounced in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). See State v. Davis, 120 R.I. 82, 86, 384 A.2d 1061, 1064 (1978) (acknowledging adoption of Blockburger test). Under the same-evidence test, where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not. Davis, 120 R.I. at 86, 384 A.2d at 1064 (quoting Blockburger, 284 U.S. at 304, 52 S.Ct. 180); see also State v. Bolarinho, 850 A.2d 907, 909 (R.I.2004). This is not the first time that we have addressed the issue of whether multiple assault convictions merged after a double-jeopardy analysis. In Bolarinho, 850 A.2d at 911, the defendant, in a single incident, repeatedly kicked the complainant. From this single occurrence, the defendant was charged with two counts of felony assault in violation of § 11-5-2; one count for committing a felony assault by use of a dangerous weapon, to wit a shod foot, and one count for committing a felony assault that resulted in serious bodily injury. Bolarinho, 850 A.2d at 908-09. We considered whether a conviction for both assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury resulting from the same transaction may stand. Id. at 911. The Court held that when the evidence used to convict the defendant of assault with a dangerous weapon and assault resulting in serious bodily injury is identical, the counts merge under a double-jeopardy analysis. Id. Alternatively, in State v. Haney, 842 A.2d 1083, 1084-85 (R.I.2004), we considered whether a defendant's two domestic-assault convictions on the same complainant on the same night could withstand scrutiny under a double-jeopardy analysis. The incidents were separated by fifteen minutes, and one assault occurred in Burrillville while the other assault occurred in Glocester. Id. The defendant argued that, because he and the complainant were together in a car throughout the entire fifteen-minute interval between assaults, both were part of a continuing transaction. Id. at 1085. We rejected the defendant's double-jeopardy argument because the acts underlying the two convictions were separate acts. Id. The victim was identical, but the assaults occurred at different times and in different towns, and the defendant had sufficient opportunity to reflect on his assaultive conduct and to forbear from committing another crime before he committed the second assault. Id. Applying the Blockburger same-evidence test to the case before us, we first consider whether the facts underlying counts 5 and 6 constitute the same act or transaction. Davis, 120 R.I. at 86, 384 A.2d at 1064 (quoting Blockburger, 284 U.S. at 304, 52 S.Ct. 180). Count 5 alleged that defendant assaulted the complainant with a screwdriver, a dangerous weapon. Conversely, count 6 alleged that defendant committed a felony assault on the complainant by later grabbing her arm and dislocating it. On their face, the facts alleged in each count do not constitute the same act or transaction, because each assault arises from a different act. Nothing in the record indicates that the use of the screwdriver caused the complainant's right arm to dislocate. Unlike in Bolarinho, in which the same evidence of kicking the victim was used to support both an assault with a dangerous weapon and an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, here the two counts are supported by different evidence. See Bolarinho, 850 A.2d at 911. Therefore, the trial justice was correct when he ruled that counts 5 and 6 did not merge and did not violate defendant's constitutional protection against being placed into double jeopardy.