State v. Pineo

Summary

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court reviewed Robert Pineo's convictions for aggravated assault, aggravated OUI, and driving to endanger arising from a drunk-driving collision. The court upheld admission of the blood-alcohol test, rejected Pineo's double-jeopardy challenge to multiple convictions, and held that the statutory restriction on consecutive sentences did not apply to his nonintentional offenses. The court modified the judgment to remove an unauthorized stay of the driver's-license suspensions and affirmed it as modified.

Holdings

1. Blood-alcohol-test results are admissible when the State makes a foundational showing that the test is sufficiently reliable; the trial court did not clearly err in finding Pineo's test reliable.
2. The Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Maine and United States Constitutions did not bar Pineo's convictions for aggravated assault, aggravated OUI, and driving to endanger because each offense requires proof of a factual element that the others do not.
3. The statutory prohibition against consecutive sentences when one crime consists of facilitating another did not apply because Pineo's aggravated OUI and aggravated assault convictions were not intentional crimes and therefore could not satisfy the Bunker purpose test.
4. The sentencing court lacked authority to stay Pineo's driver's-license suspension until his release from prison; the judgment had to be modified to delete the stay.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial court properly admitted Pineo's blood-alcohol test after finding it sufficiently reliable.
2. Whether the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Maine and United States Constitutions barred convictions for aggravated assault, aggravated OUI, and driving to endanger arising from the same conduct.
3. Whether Maine's statutory prohibition on consecutive sentences for offenses in which one crime facilitates another barred consecutive sentences for aggravated assault and aggravated OUI.
4. Whether the sentencing court had authority to stay Pineo's driver's-license suspension until his release from prison.

Disposition

affirmed