Court Opinion

ID: 9782187
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 18:04:59.817051+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:34:51.119006
License: Public Domain

*717Beier, J.,
concurring in part and dissenting in part. I concur with the majority of the court in nearly all respects. I respectfully dissent only on the joinder issue, because I believe that the felony murder and cocaine sale charges were improperly tried together. The two crimes were not, as the State asserts, “connected together” under the governing statute. See K.S.A. 22-3202(1). Their consolidation for trial does not resemble any of the three scenarios we have accepted in the past, as outlined in Justice Larson’s opinion. Rather, the defendant is correct that the authorities’ investigations of the crimes were connected together, but not the crimes themselves. Even under a forgiving abuse of discretion standard, the trial of the two crimes together was error.
The question then becomes whether this error resulted in prejudice or harm to the defense. Although I am persuaded that the consolidation of the cocaine sale charge with the felony-murder charge was harmless, I am not persuaded that the consolidation of the felony-murder charge with the cocaine sale charge was likewise harmless. I would reverse defendant’s cocaine sale conviction and remand that portion of the case, requiring the State to retry that charge on its own, if at all.
Allegrucci, J., joins in the foregoing concurrence and dissent.