Opinion ID: 2584374
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Were there multiple acts of criminal threat?

Text: To convict Foster of criminal threat, the jury was instructed it had to find Foster threatened to commit violence with the intent to terrorize R.R. See K.S.A. 21-3419. The facts show Foster spent at least an hour, perhaps longer, terrorizing B.H. and R.R. He threatened to kill them to get them into the bedroom and to undress. After he forced R.R. into the closet, he threatened to kill her if she tried to leave. After killing B.H., Foster threatened to kill R.R. and her family if she told anyone. All threats were made at nearly the same time and at the same location. R.R. testified she was terrified throughout the ordeal. And while other criminal acts occurred between Foster's multiple threats, it is difficult to see how they break the causal relationship between all of Foster's threats or demonstrate fresh impulses to commit multiple crimes of criminal threat. Foster entered the apartment that morning carrying two knives. In conjunction with his words, he used the knives to gain R.R.'s compliance with his many demands, all of which constituted criminal acts. He preplanned his crimes by bringing the knives and buying boric acid. We find Foster was motivated by a broad and singular impulse to threaten and terrorize B.H. and R.R. The many threats were the result of a single impulse to terrorize the apartment's occupants. Because of this finding, no further analysis is required. See Schoonover, 281 Kan. at 506-507, 133 P.3d 48. A unanimity instruction was not necessary for the criminal threat charge.