Court Opinion

ID: 9845202
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:16:41.377867+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:54.543002
License: Public Domain

BROTHERTON,
Justice, concurring m part, dissenting in part:
I concur with the majority opinion finding W.Va.Code § 61-2-14(a), setting forth the offenses of abduction with intent to defile, constitutional, but dissent from the majority’s conclusion that the trial court erred in consolidating for trial two indictments against the defendant charging him with violations of W.Va.Code § 61-2-14(a).
' In syllabus point 2, the majority correctly points out that joinder of two or more indictments for trial is within the discretion of the trial court when the offenses are of the same or similar character. The offenses can be joined even though the acts are not the same if they are connected together or constitute part of a common scheme or plan. W.Va.R.Crim.P. 8(a).
The facts set forth in the majority opinion clearly show a common scheme or plan. The acts took place in the same area, a knife was involved, and the motive was for sexual gratification. The majority cites state and federal authorities, at length, which allow for the consolidation of two indictments for the very same reason the trial court granted the State’s motion for consolidation in the instant case.
The majority discusses W.Va.R.Crim.P. 14(a), which permits a trial court to order separate trials on the grounds that the defendant might be prejudiced. In this case the trial court, using the discretion granted by W.Va.R.Crim.P. 8(a), consolidated the two indictments. This Court has said on may occasions that a trial court, when exercising its discretion under the rules, will not be reversed unless clearly wrong. However, we find no discussion by the majority of any facts which would indicate that the defendant was prejudiced by the joinder of the two indictments; nor did the majority show that the trial judge was clearly wrong. I am confident the majority opinion will only serve to confuse the issue of when indictments can be consolidated under Rule 8(a).
For the above reasons, I dissent.