State v. Gingrich

320 N.W.2d 445, 211 Neb. 786, 1982 Neb. LEXIS 1121
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 4, 1982
Docket81-811
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 320 N.W.2d 445 (State v. Gingrich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gingrich, 320 N.W.2d 445, 211 Neb. 786, 1982 Neb. LEXIS 1121 (Neb. 1982).

Opinion

Clinton, J.

The defendant Gingrich was convicted of burglary by a jury in the District Court for Sherman County, Nebraska, and sentenced to a term of 1 year in the *787 Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex with credit being given for 42 days’ jail time.

The defendant appeals to this court and makes 15 assignments of error. Those which will require discussion are the following: (1) The defendant was denied a speedy trial as required by Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 29-1207 and 29-1208 (Reissue 1979) and by the pertinent provisions of the Constitutions of the State of Nebraska and the United States. (2) The evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. (3) The court erred in failing to suppress evidence seized in the search of a motor vehicle. (4) The court erred in not suppressing identification testimony of eyewitnesses.

The first assignment makes necessary an outline of procedural events. Some of the dates which follow cannot be determined from the transcript and are taken from recitals by counsel for the defendant during hearings before the District Court and which appear to have been accepted by both the State and the district judge as accurate. A complaint charging the defendant with the crime of robbery was filed in the county court of Sherman County on August 25, 1980. The defendant had been arrested on August 23, 2 days earlier and within a few hours of the commission of the crime. On September 24 the defendant waived preliminary hearing on the robbery charge and was released on bond. On January 14, 1981, the information charging robbery was filed in the District Court. On February 6, 1981, a plea bargain was presented to the court and refused. There is no evidence in the record indicating the nature of the plea bargain, by whom it was initiated, or the time consumed in arriving at the proposed bargain. On February 25 an information charging burglary was filed in the District Court. This charge apparently was based on the same transaction as the charge of robbery. On February 27 the defendant filed a motion to dismiss for failure to grant a *788 speedy trial. A hearing on that motion was held on the same day, and the motion was overruled. No evidence was introduced. At that time the defendant demanded a preliminary hearing on that charge, and the District Court sent the matter back to the county court for a preliminary hearing. On March 12, 1981, the defendant was bound over to the District Court on the burglary charge. The arraignment on the burglary charge was held on March 13, 1981, and the defendant entered a plea of not guilty. The county attorney announced his election to go to trial on the charge of burglary, and trial date was set for June 29. Ten days previous to June 29, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss for failure to grant a speedy trial as required by § 29-1208 and the constitutional provisions, and a motion to suppress. After hearing on that motion and the motion to suppress was held on June 29, they were overruled.

The defendant argues that the period between the time of filing the complaint in the county court on August 25, 1980, and the trial beginning June 29, 1981, constituted an unreasonable delay and a deprivation of the right to a speedy trial under both constitutional and statutory requirements. He further argues that in applying the statute, the period between the filing of the complaint and the filing of the information should be included.

Section 29-1207 provides that any person indicted or informed against shall be brought to trial within 6 months. The time begins to run from the date of indictment or filing of the information, excluding such periods as are specified in the statute. Section 29-1208 provides that if the defendant is not brought to trial before the running of the time for trial, as extended by the excluded periods, then the defendant is entitled to an absolute discharge.

Apparently 3 months and 20 days elapsed between the date the defendant was released on bond after waiving preliminary hearing and the time of the fil *789 ing of the information on the robbery charge. Neither the defendant nor the State introduced any evidence explaining this delay.

The defendant’s right to a speedy trial as specified by § 29-1207 begins when he is indicted or is informed against. State v. Costello, 199 Neb. 43, 256 N.W.2d 97 (1977); State v. Spidell, 192 Neb. 42, 218 N.W.2d 431 (1974); State v. Born, 190 Neb. 767, 212 N.W.2d 581 (1973).

In Costello, supra, we said: “The constitutional right to a speedy trial and the statutory implementation of that right under section 29-1207, R.R.S. 1943 . . . exist independently of each other. . . . Any unreasonable delay occurring prior to the filing of an information will be considered, in conjunction with statutory requirements, in determining whether or not a defendant has been denied the constitutional right to a speedy trial.” 199 Neb. at 49, 256 N.W.2d at 102. See, also, State v. Born, supra. Accordingly, we must examine the record to determine whether the defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated.

Barker v. Wingo, 407 U.S. 514, 92 S. Ct. 2182, 33 L. Ed. 2d 101 (1972), is the leading case on the constitutional right to a speedy trial. There the U.S. Supreme Court said that a defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial cannot be established by any inflexible rule, but can be determined only on an ad hoc balancing basis in which the conduct of the prosecution and that of the defendant are weighed. The Court said that an assessment should be made of such factors as the length of and the reason for the delay, the defendant’s assertion of his right, and prejudice to the defendant. In that case more than 5 years elapsed between the time of the arrest and the trial. The prosecution obtained numerous delays related to the trial of an accomplice because it wanted to secure a conviction of the accomplice so that his testimony might be used against the defendant. The *790 Court noted that there was no serious prejudice to the defendant because of the delay, that he had not pressed for a speedy trial, and concluded that he had not been deprived of his due process right to a speedy trial.

The record in the case at bar shows no prejudice whatever to the defendant as a consequence of the delay in the filing of the information, nor as a result of the less than 6 months which elapsed between the filing of the information and trial. The defendant was free on bond from the time of the waiver of preliminary hearing on the robbery charge until the time of trial. He did not press for trial until February 27. According to his own counsel, some plea negotiations were taking place after the filing of the information and before February 27. It does not appear that the delay caused any loss of evidence or that preparation for trial was hindered.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
320 N.W.2d 445, 211 Neb. 786, 1982 Neb. LEXIS 1121, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gingrich-neb-1982.