State v. Hilton

69 P.3d 779, 187 Or. App. 666, 2003 Ore. App. LEXIS 628
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 15, 2003
Docket000735951; A115033
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 69 P.3d 779 (State v. Hilton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hilton, 69 P.3d 779, 187 Or. App. 666, 2003 Ore. App. LEXIS 628 (Or. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

*668 BREWER, J.

A jury convicted defendant of the crimes of felon in possession of a firearm, ORS 166.270, and unlawful use of a weapon, ORS 166.220. 1 The trial court sentenced him to consecutive prison terms of five years and ten years, respectively, applying the firearm minimum sentence statute, ORS 161.610(4), for the latter offense. On appeal, defendant advances several assignments of error. He argues that the trial court should have dismissed the action based on statutory and constitutional speedy trial violations. He further assigns error to the court’s denial of his motion for a mistrial after the state elicited testimony that he had threatened a witness. In addition, he asserts that the court erred by imposing a 10-year sentence for the unlawful use of a weapon conviction. Finally, defendant argues that the court erred in imposing consecutive sentences. We vacate the sentence for unlawful use of a weapon conviction, remand for resentenc-ing, and otherwise affirm.

Because defendant was convicted, we state the facts in the light most favorable to the state. State v. King, 307 Or 332, 339, 768 P2d 391 (1989). On October 29, 1998, defendant’s girlfriend, Zollner, drove him past an apartment building from which he had recently been evicted. When they reached a particular driveway, defendant rolled down the window of the car and fired at least seven shots at the side of the building. One shot nearly struck Summerer, the apartment manager, in the head. Zollner and defendant then drove away. At the time, defendant was on probation for an unrelated offense.

On May 27,1999, Zollner spoke with Collard, defendant’s probation officer, and told him about the shooting. As a result, a probation violation warrant was issued for defendant’s arrest. He was arrested on June 4 and released 17 days later pending a hearing. The probation violation proceeding was dismissed on July 14, 1999. On July 27, 2000, *669 defendant was indicted for unlawful use of a weapon and felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the October 1998 incident. He was taken into custody on the same day. On September 5, 2000, the indictment was dismissed and, on the same day, defendant was reindicted on the same charges. On September 11, defendant waived in writing his right under ORS 136.290 to have the case brought to trial within 60 days of his arrest. After defendant requested and received several continuances, trial was set for December 18, 2000.

On December 15, 2000, defendant filed a motion to dismiss the action on the ground of prosecutorial delay in violation of ORS 135.747, Article I, section 10, of the Oregon Constitution, and the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He argued that the state was aware of the allegations against him in May 1999, when it issued the probation violation warrant, but that it had failed to indict him for more than a year after that. He also asserted that delays between the July 27 indictment and the September 5 rein-dictment were all attributable to the state. The court denied the motion, and the case went to trial.

During the state’s case-in-chief, the prosecutor called Zollner as a witness. During direct examination, the following colloquy took place:

“Q Okay. I want to talk to you a minute about after this incident happened.
“A Okay.
“Q Did you go to the police and tell them about it?
“A No.
“Q And why not?
“A Because he told me that if I said anything to anybody, he would know that it was me because I was the only one there, and that he would shoot me like he did the apartment; and he also told me that the whole reason he did that is because it was a test to see if he could even trust me.
“Q Okay. Did he make any threats towards anyone else that you know of?
“A Uh-huh.
*670 “Q Who else did he threaten?
“A Well, he threatened me that he was going to hide in a bush and shoot my mom when she was gonna leave her house and go to work in the morning.
“ [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Judge, can we approach?
“THE COURT: Yup.”

The bench conference took place off the record. After the conference, the prosecutor resumed examining Zollner on other subjects. After defendant’s counsel cross-examined her, the court excused her from the stand. The court and counsel then conferred off the record about a scheduling matter, and the court excused the jury for a short recess. While the jury was out of the courtroom, the court and counsel discussed the propriety of the state’s calling Zollner’s attorney as its next witness. When that issue was resolved, the court invited further discussion of defendant’s objection to Zollner’s testimony about threats. After a colloquy lasting several minutes, defendant moved for a mistrial on the ground that Zollner’s testimony was unfairly prejudicial. The court denied the motion, but it offered to give a limiting instruction directing the jury to consider Zollner’s statement that she was threatened but not the content of the threats. Defendant argued that, rather than curing the prejudice, the instruction would call further attention to the statement. Nevertheless, over defendant’s objection, the court gave the instruction.

The jury returned guilty verdicts on both charges. It further found that defendant had seriously endangered the life and safety of Summerer. The court sentenced defendant to five years’ imprisonment on the felon in possession of a firearm conviction. 2 Based on defendant’s stipulation that he had, in 1983, been convicted in Virginia of a felony involving the use of a firearm, the court sentenced him under ORS 161.610(4)(b) to 10 years’ imprisonment for unlawful use of a weapon. 3 Because the court found that the risk to Summerer *671 caused by the shooting was qualitatively different from the harm caused by defendant being a felon in possession of a firearm, it ordered the sentences to run consecutively. See ORS 137.123(5)(b). 4 This appeal followed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
69 P.3d 779, 187 Or. App. 666, 2003 Ore. App. LEXIS 628, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hilton-orctapp-2003.