State v. Kosch

205 A.3d 248, 458 N.J. Super. 344
CourtNew Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division
DecidedMarch 12, 2019
DocketDOCKET NO. A-0520-18T1
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 205 A.3d 248 (State v. Kosch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Kosch, 205 A.3d 248, 458 N.J. Super. 344 (N.J. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

FISHER, P.J.A.D.

*346This is the third time this matter has come before us. The first time, we reversed defendant's three convictions for the theft of immovable property; we remanded those counts for a new trial and left standing his other six convictions. State v. Kosch, 444 N.J. Super. 368, 133 A.3d 669 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 227 N.J. 369, 151 A.3d 972 (2016). Our mandate clearly precluded resentencing without a final disposition of the three theft-of-immovable-property counts, yet the trial judge simply shelved those counts and resentenced defendant on the other six convictions to the same aggregate sentence. So, when defendant appealed for the second *347time, we vacated that new judgment of conviction and remanded for a final disposition of the shelved counts. State v. Kosch, 454 N.J. Super. 440, 185 A.3d 959 (App. Div. 2018). The State then voluntarily dismissed the three theft-of-immovable-property counts, and the judge again resentenced defendant to the same aggregate sentence originally imposed.

Defendant appeals and argues, among other things, that the judge: (1) by "reviving" a dismissed count, imposed the same aggregate sentence and thereby violated his double jeopardy and due process rights; (2) imposed an extended fifteen-year term on a conviction for which he previously sentenced defendant to a seven-year prison term, thereby violating double jeopardy and due process principles; and (3) imposed an excessive sentence. We reject the first two of these arguments, but, on consideration of the third, we remand for further proceedings.

I

The factual circumstances, as well as many of the procedural events in this convoluted *250matter, are explained in our earlier reported decisions and need not be repeated here. We only briefly traverse some of that well-trodden ground to explain why defendant's argument about a "revived" dismissed count is without merit.

A

Defendant was charged with committing numerous offenses described in two indictments: 13-05-0187 and 13-05-0188, which we will refer to as 187 and 188. To be precise, 187 and 188 each contained ten counts. In 2014, defendant was tried on eleven of those twenty counts: all of 188's ten counts and one of 187's. As we observed in Kosch I, the one count from 187 that was part of the trial was 187's tenth count, which, to confuse the reader further, was designated at trial as "count eleven." 444 N.J. Super. at 377, 133 A.3d 669.

*348The jury convicted defendant of seven of 188's counts, as well as that single count from 187. At sentencing, the judge imposed prison terms on the seven counts from 188 for the following periods of time:

• count one (second-degree theft of immovable property): fifteen years, subject to a six-year period of parole ineligibility
• count two (third-degree forgery): five years
• count six (second-degree theft of immovable property): eight years
• count seven (third-degree theft of movable property): five years
• count eight (third-degree theft of immovable property): five years
• count nine (third-degree theft of movable property): five years
• count ten (third-degree forgery): five years

The judge also imposed on "count eleven" - again, 187's tenth count, which charged second-degree trafficking in items containing personal identifying information, N.J.S.A. 2C:21-17.3 - a seven-year prison term.

What we referred to in Kosch I as "the first group" of convictions - counts one, six, eight and eleven - were ordered to run concurrently with each other, and the convictions in "the second group" - counts two, seven, nine and ten - were ordered to run concurrently with each other. 444 N.J. Super. at 377, 133 A.3d 669. The concurrent terms of the first group, however, were ordered to run consecutively to the collection of concurrent terms in the second group. Ibid. This produced an aggregate twenty-year prison term with a six-year period of parole ineligibility. Ibid.

Our decision in Kosch I reversed the theft-of-immovable-property convictions: counts one, six, and eight, which were all part of the first group. Of that group, count one carried the lengthiest term, indeed, the only extended term and the only term subject to a period of parole ineligibility of all defendant's convictions. With the State's voluntary dismissal of counts one, six, and eight, the only remaining conviction in the first group of convictions is count eleven, which, as we have noted, was the only count of 187 that was adjudicated. That is why defendant's argument about this so-called "revived count" is meaningful. Without a conviction on count eleven, no convictions would be left in the first group, and defendant *349would be left to serve - absent further alteration through resentencing - the concurrent prison terms imposed on the second group, which amount to five years: a prison term that defendant may have by now completed.

B

With these convoluted circumstances in mind, we consider defendant's contentions *251about the "revived" count, 187's tenth count, which we have referred to as count eleven.

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205 A.3d 248, 458 N.J. Super. 344, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kosch-njsuperctappdiv-2019.