Summary
The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the defendant's convictions for thirty counts of obtaining money by false pretenses. The court held that transferring venue to Providence County was within the presiding justice's discretion and that the charges were properly joined because they were of the same or similar character and reflected a common scheme. The court declined to review the severance claim because the defendant had not properly presented a Rule 14 motion to the trial court.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the presiding justice exceeded his authority or abused his discretion by transferring the cases from the Superior Courts in Kent, Newport, and Washington Counties to Providence County.
- Whether the offenses were improperly joined under Rule 8(a) of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure.
- Whether the trial justice erred by consolidating the charges for trial under Rule 13.
- Whether the failure to sever the charges deprived defendant of a fair trial under Rule 14.
- Whether defendant preserved his severance claim for appellate review.
Holdings
- The presiding justice did not abuse his discretion by transferring the cases to Providence County because Rhode Island law permits exceptions to county-based venue and judicial economy and available resources supported the transfer.
- The charges were properly joined because the offenses were of the same or similar character and reflected the same underlying scheme.
- The trial justice did not abuse her discretion by consolidating the charges for trial because evidence of the other alleged offenses likely would have been admissible in separate trials to establish a common design, plan, or scheme.
- Defendant's Rule 14 severance claim was not properly before the court because he did not meaningfully present a motion to sever to the trial justice; in any event, the record did not establish prejudice sufficient to deny a fair trial.
Key quotations
“Such joinder is proper only when the offenses charged are “of the same or similar character or are based on the same act or transaction or on two (2) or more acts or transactions connected together or constituting parts of a common scheme or plan.”” (46 A.3d at 873)
“The severance of joined counts against a defendant, which is authorized by Rule 14 of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure, is not a matter of right, but rather is confided to the sound discretion of the trial justice.” (46 A.3d at 875)
Factual background
Defendant was charged in seventeen informations with obtaining money by false pretenses from numerous complainants in 2005, 2006, and 2007. The allegations described a substantially identical scheme: defendant approached individuals, induced them to believe they knew him, claimed that his lobster truck had broken down and that the lobsters would spoil, obtained money, promised repayment and often lobsters, and failed to repay. The charges arose in multiple Rhode Island counties and were tried together in Providence County.
Procedural history
Seventeen criminal informations were filed in the four Rhode Island Superior Courts. The presiding justice transferred the cases to Providence County for reasons of judicial economy, and the trial justice consolidated thirty-nine counts for trial under Rule 13. After a jury convicted defendant on thirty counts and acquitted him on one, defendant appealed, challenging the venue transfer, joinder, and failure to sever. The Supreme Court of Rhode Island affirmed.