Court Opinion

ID: 9535905
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 06:46:24.485805+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:33:22.920136
License: Public Domain

R. B. Burns, P.J.
(dissenting). I must dissent.
Defendant was convicted of arson of real property, MCL 750.73; MSA 28.268, in a nonjury trial in Kent County on March 14, 1978. On March 16, 1978, two days later, the prosecutor filed a supplemental information charging defendant as a second felony offender, MCL 769.10, 769.13; MSA 28.1082, 28.1085. Defendant’s prior conviction was also in Kent County before the same judge on March 17, 1977. Defendant was convicted of the habitual offender charge and appeals that conviction.
As both felony convictions occurred in the same county, knowledge by the prosecutor of the prior offense is presumed. When a prosecutor has knowledge of a prior felony conviction it is error for him to delay filing an habitual offender charge until after defendant’s conviction on the last felony. See People v Devine, 407 Mich 904; 284 NW2d 342 (1979), modifying on appeal 87 Mich App 213; 274 NW2d 20 (1978).
I would reverse defendant’s habitual offender conviction and reinstate his sentence on the arson conviction.