State v. Pribble

375 P.3d 966, 304 Kan. 824, 2016 Kan. LEXIS 321
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJuly 15, 2016
Docket108915
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 375 P.3d 966 (State v. Pribble) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pribble, 375 P.3d 966, 304 Kan. 824, 2016 Kan. LEXIS 321 (kan 2016).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Johnson, J.:

Jeffrey L. Pribble seeks review of the Court of Appeals decision to affirm his convictions on numerous drug offenses and his 42 months’ imprisonment sentence. The Court of Appeals affirmed Pribble s convictions after rejecting Pribble s claims that (1) the charges for possession of marijuana with no drug tax stamp and possession of methamphetamine with no drug tax stamp constituted only one crime, rendering the two convictions multiplici-tous; (2) the prosecutor committed reversible misconduct during his closing argument; and (3) the district court violated Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S. Ct. 2348, 147 L. Ed. 2d 435 (2000), by using his prior convictions to enhance his sentence under the sentencing guidelines without requiring the State to prove the existence of those prior convictions to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. This court granted Pribble s petition for review. Finding that the drug tax stamp statute contemplates only one unit of prosecution under these facts, we reverse one of those convictions and remand for resentencing.

Factual and Procedural Overview

While executing a search warrant at Pribble’s house, law enforcement officers discovered and seized drug-buy money, over [826]*826800 grams of marijuana, more than 14 grams of methamphetamine, and various items of drug paraphernalia. None of the drugs bore the requisite drug tax stamps. As a result, Pribble was charged with possessing marijuana, methamphetamine, paraphernalia, and drug-sale proceeds. Of particular interest here, the State also charged Pribble with two taxation offenses under K.S.A. 79-5208, to-wit: one count of possession of marijuana with no drug tax stamp and one count of possession of methamphetamine with no drug tax stamp.

Pribble testified that none of the seized drugs or paraphernalia belonged to him and offered explanations for the incriminating circumstances. Nevertheless, the jury convicted Pribble as charged. This appeal ensued.

Multiplicity

Pribble first challenges the Court of Appeals determinations that “Pribble’s convictions of possession of marijuana with no drug tax stamp and possession of methamphetamine with no drug tax stamp do not arise from the same conduct and, by statutory definition, constitute two separate offenses.” State v. Pribble, No. 108,915, 2014 WL 1193337, at *4 (Kan. App. 2014) (unpublished opinion). Those determinations led the panel to “conclude that the convictions are not multiplicitous in violation of the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and § 10 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights.” 2014 WL 1193337, at *4,

Pribble s challenge to the panel’s holding is founded on our definition of multiplicity as being “the charging of a single offense in several counts of a complaint or information.” State v. Thompson, 287 Kan. 238, 244, 200 P.3d 22 (2008); State v. Schoonover, 281 Kan. 453, 475, 133 P.3d 48 (2006). We have noted that “[t]he principal danger of multiplicity is that it creates the potential for multiple punishments for a single offense, which is prohibited by tire Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and § 10 of the Kansas Constitution Bill of Rights.” Thompson, 287 Kan. at 244.

[827]*827 Standard of Review

A K.S.A. 79-5208 violation occurs when a drug dealer distributes or possesses marijuana or controlled substances without having affixed the appropriate stamps, labels, or other indicia of having paid the tax imposed on the dealers drugs. Whether the State charged a single drug tax stamp offense in two counts of the complaint or information presents a question of law subject to unlimited review. See Schoonover, 281 Kan. at 462.

Analysis

The Court of Appeals loosely applied Schoonovers two-component test for determining whether convictions are multiplicitous. Under that rubric, a court first looks at whether the convictions arose from the same conduct, considering such factors as:

“(1) whether the acts occur at or near the same time; (2) whether the acts occur at the same location; (3) whether there is a causal relationship between the acts, in particular whether there was an intervening event; and (4) whether there is a fresh impulse motivating some of the conduct.” 281 Kan. 453, Syl. ¶ 16.

If the same-conduct prong is met, the second component of the test focuses on whether the applicable statutory provisions define “two offenses or only one.” 281 Kan. 453, Syl. ¶ 15.

The panel first determined that Pribbles possession of two different drugs constituted two separate acts that would support two convictions, notwithstanding the acknowledged fact that “the charged acts occurred at the same time and location.” Pribble, 2014 WL1193337, at *3. In addition to the conceded applicability of the first two Schoonover factors (same time and same location), the remaining two factors favor a determination that the convictions arose from the same conduct. The fact that all of the drugs found at Pribble s house — at the same time and in the same place — were devoid of any affixed drug tax stamp does not support the notion that there was any intervening event between the alleged criminal acts. Likewise, the reasonable inference to be drawn from these circumstances is that the same impulse — to avoid detection and evade taxes — was the likely motivation for failing to pay the tax and affix the tax stamps to both drugs. In short, both drug tax stamp [828]*828convictions arose from the same conduct, i.e., a drug dealers “distributing or possessing marijuana or controlled substances without affixing the appropriate stamps, labels or other indicia.” K.S.A. 79-5208.

Notwithstanding the Court of Appeals’ determination that Pribbles convictions did not meet the first multiplicity requirement of separate conduct, it chose to proceed to the second step. Because Pribbles two convictions were based on violations of the same statute, K.S.A. 79-5208, the panel applied Schoonovers unit of prosecution test to determine whether the legislature intended two offenses or only one. Pribble, 2014 WL 1193337, at *4. Under this test, a court looks at “the statutory definition of the crime” to determine “what the legislature intended as the allowable unit of prosecution,” and then allows only one conviction for each identified unit of prosecution. Schoonover, 281 Kan. at 497-98.

The panel focused on portions of K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 79-5201(c), which is a subsection of the definitions provision of the act addressing the taxation of marijuana and controlled substances, K.S.A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
375 P.3d 966, 304 Kan. 824, 2016 Kan. LEXIS 321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pribble-kan-2016.