Court Opinion

ID: 9761431
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 01:42:49.941284+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:23.710441
License: Public Domain

BARDGETT, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. In my opinion the failure of the trial court to sustain the appellant’s motion to sever count I (committed November 13, 1978) from counts II and III (committed March 8,1979) and count IV (committed March 12, 1979), and count IV from counts II and III constituted reversible error.
Rule 23.05, formerly Rule 24.04, permits the joinder of several counts charging separate crimes and the prosecution of them at *275one trial providing the criteria of the rule are met. Of course, if there is no pretrial objection to joinder, a defendant cannot complain after conviction. State v. Serna, 526 S.W.2d 66, 67 (Mo.App.1975). This was the law even prior to the adoption of this rule. See State v. Neal, 514 S.W.2d 544, 550 (Mo.banc 1974) (Donnelly, C. J., concurring); State v. Terry, 325 S.W.2d 1, 5 (Mo.1959).
Former Rule 24.04 was amended in 1971 in an effort to reconcile the Missouri rule, as set forth in State v. Terry, supra, and the “double jeopardy-collateral estoppel” holding of Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970). State v. Neal, supra, at 550 (Donnelly, C. J., concurring).
In the instant case there are obviously no collateral estoppel or double jeopardy problems which would attend the trial or conviction on count I (November 13, 1978) assault with intent to kill with malice aforethought charge and count IV (March 12,1979) carrying a concealed weapon charge vis-a-vis counts II and III (March 8, 1979) first-degree arson and first-degree assault charges. In Ashe v. Swenson, supra, the United States Supreme Court held that collateral estoppel prevented Ashe’s trial for several other robbery charges after being acquitted of one robbery charge because, the Court said, the acquittal was based on a finding that the defendant was not present at the time of that robbery. Therefore, Ashe could not have been present when the other robberies took place because they occurred at the same time.
Here, an acquittal on alibi grounds of the November 13, 1978, charge (count I) would not estop a trial on the March 8, 1979, charges (counts II and III) or the March 12, 1979, charge (count IV). Consequently, I do not believe the circumstances of the instant case present the same or similar problem which this Court sought to mitigate by adopting the amendment to Rule 24.04 in 1971. I do not think this Court intended the rule to authorize, over objection, the trial of separate crimes where the times of their commission were so far apart, as in this case.
The majority contends “the essential test in determining whether a common scheme or plan exists ... [to be] the requirement that all the offenses charged must be ‘products of a single or continuing motive.’ ” Thus, several sales of controlled substances to the same person could be joined on the premise that there was a continuing motive to sell drugs. Yet, in State v. Prier, 561 S.W.2d 437 (Mo.App.1978), the court, correctly I think, held that three sales of different controlled substances within two months to the same undercover policeman could not be joined. There was no intent to make all the drug sales to the same person prior to the first sale and no showing that any overall design would have been frustrated if any of the offenses had not been committed. Id. at 440. Similarly, the stealing of purses from two people could be joined under the principal opinion’s test, demonstrating a continuing purpose to steal purses. Nevertheless, the court in State v. Howard, 601 S.W.2d 308 (Mo.App.1980), found that joinder was improper where the defendant, within one hour, stole purses from two people who were located several blocks apart. No factual connection existed between the offenses. Id. at 309. Equally, assault of one person could be joined with the assault of another a short time later because they evidenced a single motive to injure people. Still, in State v. Buford, 582 S.W.2d 298 (Mo.App.1979), the court found that these crimes “were not shown to be motivated by a common scheme or plan, and could not be described as part of the same transaction.” Id. at 302. Likewise, fraudulently obtaining loans from several banks in the same city within two years might be joined on the basis that the accused had a continuing motive to get loans in that fashion. Although the court in United States v. Cartwright, 632 F.2d 1290 (5th Cir. 1980), allowed joinder, it was permitted under Fed.R.Crim.P. 8(a) as crimes substantially similar in character and not as part of a common scheme or plan. All these crimes are conceivably products of a continuing motive, as are all crimes committed by one person where the purpose is *276to obtain money. Money is the motive. Nonetheless, courts which have considered the meaning of a common scheme or plan for purposes of joinder generally agree that for separate crimes to be joined properly, they must have occurred within a relatively short period of time, with each not only evincing a single plan or design, but also with each being a natural product or progression of the other.1 See, e. g., State v. Howard, supra, at 309; State v. Pittman, 569 S.W.2d 277, 280 (Mo.App.1978); State v. Brooks, 513 S.W.2d 168, 171 (Mo.App.1973). Simply, a common scheme or plan encompasses more than merely products of a continuing motive, purpose, or the desires of an evil mind. I believe that there also must be a close connection in time and place or nature of the offenses, with each being a natural product pursuant to that common plan.2 See, e. g., United States v. Jordan, 602 F.2d 171, 172 (8th Cir.) cert. denied, 444 U.S. 878, 100 S.Ct. 165, 62 L.Ed.2d 107 (1979); State v. Howard, supra, at 309. The nebulous test of the majority allows joinder of offenses which have little in common and provides scant guidance to the trial court, prior to trial, in determining whether separate and distinct crimes constitute part of a common scheme or plan. Here, the principal opinion uses the evidence in the case to justify the joinder, but that evidence was not available to the trial court when it ruled on the motion to sever.
I am concerned how a trial court can apply Rule 23.05 in any particular case, as enlarged by the principal opinion, without jeopardizing a defendant’s right to a fair trial as well as the validity of the conviction or convictions. The purpose of objecting to joinder is to prevent the trial of all counts at the same time. Therefore, the decision concerning joinder has to be made before trial because that is when the objection, to be preserved, must be made. There is no evidence, at that time, on which to decide the issue. State v. Jackson, 566 S.W.2d 227 (Mo.App.1978), demonstrates the perils of such an approach. In that case, the prosecutor promised the judge that evidence would be introduced showing that first-degree murder and heroin possession were part of the same transaction. The evidence was never submitted and the court of appeals reversed and remanded for a new trial on each count. This is inefficient and creates unnecessary work which will recur frequently when judges order joinder without a solid evidentiary basis for doing so. The “products of a continuing motive or purpose” standard gives great leeway to prosecutors without aiding the trial court. The judge must guess at the beginning whether the crimes are part of a common scheme or plan and hope that after the evidence is submitted he is proved right. Convictions should not be premised on such a tenuous basis. The principal opinion states that “[t]he underlying theme of the Rule is the achievement of judicial economy through the joinder of related offenses.” It seems to me, however, more judicially efficient to provide a workable formula in which crimes are likely to be joined properly than to adopt the majority test. Under that standard, the trial court speculates and hopes that the crimes are part of a common scheme or plan, only to be reversed on appeal and then have to retry the charges separately. In the instant case, the indictment did not even allege the four counts to be part of any common scheme or plan, and the record does not reflect the trial court’s basis for denying the motion to sever prior to trial. The reason given by the prosecutor for joining count I (November 13, 1978, assault) with the others was that it was learned that the rifle which was the subject of count IV (March 12, 1979, carrying a *277concealed weapon) was the gun that fired the bullet on November 13, 1978.
The ownership and possession of the weapon by appellant on March 12, 1979, which the state’s ballistics evidence shows fired the shot on November 13, 1978, would probably be admissible as evidence that appellant fired the shot on November 13, 1978.3 The fact that carrying a concealed weapon is a crime, however, is of no consequence with respect to the November 13th assault charge. The question is whether the gun was in the possession, lawful or unlawful, of appellant on March 12. Since the ballistics tests show this gun fired the shot on November 13, mere possession of the gun is circumstantial evidence that appellant was the one who fired the shot on November 13. It is certainly no indication that the assault on November 13, 1978, was part of some scheme or plan which involved possession of a concealed weapon on March 12, 1979, or vice versa. Further, the weapon found on appellant March 12, 1979, and which fired the shot on November 13,1978, played no part in the house bombing and assault of March 8, 1979.
I recognize that the evidence at trial was sufficient to permit a finding that appellant committed all these acts and that he was motivated in these acts by his desire to see his children and to cause Rufus to leave Lydia. Nonetheless, that motive alone does not, in my opinion, satisfy the common scheme or plan requirement of the rule nor does it otherwise come within the purview of former Rule 24.04(b). The crimes were not part of a common scheme or plan as I understand our rule. Not only were the acts decided on sequentially, and not all contemplated prior to the commission of the first one, but neither would some villainous and overall design have been frustrated if one or more of the crimes had not been committed or if appellant had committed different crimes. Thus, the crimes in nature were not similar; they did not occur close in time as contemplated by the rule;4 nor were they all formulated prior to the first crime and pursuant to an overall design.
Under State v. Howard, supra, State v. Buford, supra, and State v. Prier, supra, some of the convictions in the instant case would have to be reversed and remanded for improper joinder. I believe these cases are correct and therefore I dissent.

. For a contrary view, see State v. Mack, 576 S.W.2d 550, 552 (Mo.App.1978).

. I do not intimate that the test is the same as that for the same transaction, which requires that the crimes be closely intertwined in time and purpose. See State v. Ross, 611 S.W.2d 296, 297-98 (Mo.App.1980); State v. Callies, 588 S.W.2d 18, 20 (Mo.App.1979); State v. Johnson, 505 S.W.2d 11, 12 (Mo.App.1974). Otherwise, inclusion of the language of both the same transaction and common scheme or plan in Rule 23.05 would be superfluous. Nevertheless, the two tests for joinder of offenses are related.

. The principal opinion in footnote 7 determined that the evidentiary rule of common scheme or plan involved a different inquiry than that for joinder of offenses.

. Although counts II and III occurred within four days of count IV, they were connected in no other manner. There was no indication that appellant, acting pursuant to an overall design, was in the process of committing or in fact had committed another crime against the victims at the time he was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon.