Court Opinion

ID: 9847794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:07:40.607427+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:34.884288
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with Presiding Judge Birdsong except that in my opinion, the acquiescence constituted a waiver of the prior objection. True, there was objection at a pre-trial motion hearing. But then, that ended with the defense counsel’s statement, “I don’t have a problem with [trying counts one and two]. I just wanted to put my objection to this in the record.” At most this is ambiguous. Any ambiguity was resolved when the case was called for trial on the first two counts. The defense announced ready and proceeded on the first two counts instead of maintaining the objection.
It was not until after readiness was announced, the jury was selected and sworn, opening statements were made, and the State’s first witness was called, all on the basis of a two-count trial, that defendant resurrected the earlier position, by initiating a discussion about the trial of only one transaction. By then it was too late.