Opinion ID: 1251758
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Submission of Conspiracy as a Separate Offense.

Text: Before selection of the jury, Maghee moved to dismiss the conspiracy count as duplicitous or redundant. The State resisted, but conceded that at sentencing count I and count II should be merged. The court denied the motion. Maghee contends the district court erred in submitting the conspiracy count as a separate offense rather than as an alternative means of committing the underlying drug offense. Contrary to Maghee's claim on appeal, Maghee did not renew this motion as part of his motion for judgment of acquittal either at the close of the State's case or at the close of all the evidence. Nor did he object to the submission of the conspiracy count as a separate offense when making his record on the instructions. Thus, the parties tried the case as though the conspiracy count was a separate offense. Maghee's claim here that the district court erred in submitting the conspiracy count as a separate offense is therefore not preserved for our review. Our inquiry, however, does not end here. The jury convicted Maghee on all three counts. At sentencing, no one suggested that counts I and II should merge. So, the court sentenced Maghee to indeterminate twenty-five year sentences on each of those counts. The State concedes Maghee could not be convicted and sentenced for both counts I and II and contends State v. Williams, 305 N.W.2d 428 (Iowa 1981) controls. We agree. In Williams, the State charged the defendant with three separate counts: (1) possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver it for profit; (2) delivery of it for profit; and (3) conspiracy to do those acts. The State had earlier amended the trial information to include the conspiracy count. The case was tried to the court, which found the defendant guilty on all three counts. Later the court sentenced the defendant on all three counts. On appeal, the defendant claimed the amendment was error because the conspiracy count was a wholly new and different offense impermissible under Iowa Rule of Criminal Procedure 4(8)(a). This court held in Williams that conspiracy was not a wholly new and different offense. Rather conspiracy was only one of the alternative means of violating Iowa Code section 204.401 (1977), Iowa's drug trafficking statute as it existed then. Williams, 305 N.W.2d at 431, 434. Therefore the amendment was permissible under rule 4(8)(a). Id. For double jeopardy purposes, however, this court in Williams held that the defendant could only be sentenced for a single offense, a violation of Iowa Code section 204.401(1)(a). Id. at 434. The court affirmed as to the violation of section 204.401(1)(a), but reversed insofar as sentences for three individual offenses were imposed. Id. The court remanded for resentencing for a single offense, a violation of section 204.401(1)(a). Id. Likewise, here, the conspiracy count was an alternative means of violating Iowa Code section 124.401(1), our present drug trafficking statute. Thus, Maghee could only be sentenced for a single offense, a violation of section 124.401(1). The district court committed error when it sentenced Maghee on the conspiracy count. We must vacate the sentence on the conspiracy count insofar as sentences for two individual offenses (possession and conspiracy) were imposed. See Iowa R.Crim. P. 23(5)(a) (providing that illegal sentence may be corrected at any time); State v. Taft, 506 N.W.2d 757, 763 (Iowa 1993) (holding sentence violating double jeopardy principles as illegal). We can sever the conspiracy sentence without disturbing the balance of the sentence. We therefore let the balance of the sentence stand. See State v. Hutt, 548 N.W.2d 897, 899 (Iowa App.1996) (holding that where improper sentence imposed is severable, severing court may strike invalid part of sentence without disturbing the rest).