Opinion ID: 1956189
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Severance Motion.

Text: When a trial court has ruled on a motion to sever, our standard of review is for abuse of discretion. State v. Bair, 362 N.W.2d 509, 511 (Iowa 1985) (compares rule of criminal procedure 6(1) before and after amendment to present form). The State argues that at the threshold of this issue is the defendant's failure to file a motion to sever within the time provided by rule of criminal procedure 10(4). It provides that a motion to sever shall be filed when the grounds therefor reasonably appear but no later than forty days after arraignment. Thornton was arraigned on September 5, 1991, but did not file his motion to sever until November 8, 1991, well after the forty-day deadline. We believe the court would have been justified in denying the motion based on the failure to file it in time. In any event, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying severance. Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(1) provides: Two or more public offenses which arose from the same transaction or occurrence or from two or more transactions or occurrences constituting parts of a common scheme or plan may be alleged and prosecuted as separate counts in a single complaint, information or indictment, unless, for good cause shown, the trial court in its discretion determines otherwise. The facts underlying the various charges in this case fall under the provisions of rule 6(1). The purse thefts occurred within a short time period and under similar circumstances. The trial court was well within its discretion in ordering a joint trial based on the common scheme or plan language of rule 6(1).