State v. Thomason

Summary

The South Dakota Supreme Court affirmed Kenneth Dale Thomason’s convictions for forgery and offering false or forged instruments for filing, registering, or recording in a public office. The court held that the successive prosecution did not violate double jeopardy or res judicata because the offenses were distinct from the previously reversed aggravated-theft-by-deception conviction. The court also concluded that sufficient evidence supported venue in Lawrence County.

Holdings

1. Double jeopardy did not bar the successive prosecution because aggravated theft by deception, forgery, and offering a false or forged instrument for filing, registering, or recording are separate offenses requiring different proof and the second prosecution was not for the same act and crime, in law and in fact, as the first prosecution.
2. The principles of res judicata embodied in the Double Jeopardy Clause did not bar the second prosecution because the offenses were separate and distinct and Thomason was not twice placed in jeopardy for the same act.
3. Venue was proper in Lawrence County because the State presented sufficient evidence and reasonable inferences for the jury to find by a preponderance of the evidence that the charged conduct occurred in, or was completed through acts occurring in, Lawrence County.

Questions Presented

1. Whether double jeopardy or res judicata barred the State's successive prosecution for forgery and offering false or forged instruments after Thomason's aggravated-theft-by-deception conviction had been vacated.
2. Whether the State established proper venue in Lawrence County for the forgery and false-instrument offenses.

Disposition

affirmed