State v. Pruiett

751 S.E.2d 579, 324 Ga. App. 789, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 3787, 2013 WL 6052439, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 938
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 18, 2013
DocketA13A1293
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 751 S.E.2d 579 (State v. Pruiett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pruiett, 751 S.E.2d 579, 324 Ga. App. 789, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 3787, 2013 WL 6052439, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 938 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Branch, Judge.

Shortly after Debra Pruiett pled guilty to possessing an unspecified amount of Xanax on a particular day, she was charged with four counts of possessing drugs, including another unspecified amount of Xanax, on that same day. Pruiett filed a double jeopardy plea in bar, which the trial court granted. We affirm the grant of the bar as to the second charge for possession of Xanax, but reverse as to the charges [790]*790for possession of the remaining three drugs named in the second accusation.

On appeal from the grant or denial of a double jeopardy plea in bar, we review the trial court’s oral and written rulings as a whole to determine whether the trial court’s findings support its conclusion. Where the evidence is uncontroverted and witness credibility is not an issue, our review of the trial court’s application of the law to the undisputed facts is de novo.

(Footnote omitted.) Etienne v. State, 298 Ga. App. 149, 150 (679 SE2d 375) (2009).

The State did not introduce any evidence at the hearing on Pruiett’s plea; accordingly, the evidence introduced by Pruiett at that hearing was uncontroverted. On July 30, 2010, a police officer from Trion, Georgia received information that Pruiett was going to be delivering some methamphetamine at a specific location in the Trion area. When Pruiett appeared at the appointed place, the officer searched Pruiett’s car and found an unspecified quantity of one-milligram pills of Xanax, a controlled substance, inside. The officer arrested Pruiett for possession of the drug without a prescription. At the time of her arrest, Pruiett told the officer that she had more of the drug at her house. While Pruiett was on her way to the county jail, the arresting officer called a Chattooga County1 narcotics investigator, who interviewed Pruiett at the jail. Pruiett told the investigator that she had obtained the pills from her sister and that she kept them at her home. The investigator obtained and executed a warrant to search Pruiett’s house, where the investigator found, among other things, a spoon and baggie bearing methamphetamine residue, six two-milligram alprazolam tablets, one-and-a-half clonazepam tablets, and a bag of marijuana. During the search, Pruiett’s live-in companion, Carlton Day, arrived home from work. He was also arrested.

On the same day that the Xanax was found in Pruiett’s car and in her home, the police officer charged Pruiett with possession of alprazolam, and the narcotics investigator charged her with possession of methamphetamine and unspecified Schedule IV controlled substances. On October 26, 2010, Pruiett was formally accused of possessing an unspecified amount of alprazolam “on the 30th day of July, 2010,” an accusation to which she pled guilty on February 14, 2011. On March 1, 2011, approximately two weeks after Pruiett’s plea [791]*791Pruiett and Day were both formally accused of possessing unspecified amounts of methamphetamine, alprazolam, and clonazepam, as well as less than one ounce of marijuana, “on the 30th day of July, 2010.” The second accusation against Pruiett did not distinguish the alprazolam discovered in her home from that found in her car and at issue in the first accusation (to which she had already pled guilty). On August 5,2011, Pruiett filed a double jeopardy plea in bar under OCGA §§ 16-1-7 and 16-1-8, seeking to dismiss all four counts of the second accusation. Pruiett’s plea in bar was heard on August 22, 2012. On February 4, 2013, the trial court granted Pruiett’s plea in bar.

1. On appeal, the State argues that the trial court erred when it granted Pruiett’s plea in bar under OCGA §§ 16-1-7 and 16-1-8. We agree in part.

The double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that no person shall “be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” The Georgia Constitution also contains a double jeopardy clause which provides that “no person shall be put in jeopardy of life or liberty more than once for the same offense.” Ga. Const., 1983, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. XVIII. Further, OCGA §§ 16-1-6,16-1-7, and 16-1-8 also provide limitations on multiple prosecutions, convictions, and punishments for the same criminal conduct.

(Citation omitted.) Nolen v. State, 218 Ga. App. 819, 820 (463 SE2d 504) (1995).

OCGA § 16-1-7 provides in relevant part:

(a) When the same conduct of an accused may establish the commission of more than one crime, the accused may be prosecuted for each crime. He may not, however, be convicted of more than one crime if: (1) [o]ne crime is included in the other; or (2) [t]he crimes differ only in that one is defined to prohibit a designated kind of conduct generally and the other to prohibit a specific instance of such conduct.
(b) If the several crimes arising from the same conduct are known to the proper prosecuting officer at the time of commencing the prosecution and are within the jurisdiction of a single court, they must be prosecuted in a single prosecution

(Emphasis supplied.) OCGA § 16-1-8 provides in relevant part:

(a) A prosecution is barred if the accused was formerly prosecuted for the same crime based upon the same material [792]*792facts, if such former prosecution . . . [Resulted in either a conviction or an acquittal. . . .
(b) A prosecution is barred if the accused was formerly prosecuted for a different crime or for the same crime based upon different facts, ¿/such former prosecution:... [Resulted in either a conviction or an acquittal and the subsequent prosecution [i] is for a crime of which the accused could have been convicted on the former prosecution, [ii] is for a crime with which the accused should have been charged on the former prosecution (unless the court ordered a separate trial of such charge), or [Hi] is for a crime which involves the same conduct, unless each prosecution requires proof of a fact not required on the other prosecution or unless the crime was not consummated when the former trial began.

(Emphasis supplied.)

OCGA §§ 16-1-7 (a) and 16-1-8 (a) codify the principle of “substantive double jeopardy” in that they preclude multiple convictions or prosecutions “for crimes arising from the same criminal conduct.” (Citation omitted.) Teal v. State, 203 Ga. App. 440, 441-442 (1), (2) (417 SE2d 666) (1992). By contrast, and as the Supreme Court of Georgia has noted, OCGA § 16-1-8 (b) “embraces the concept of res judicata and is not constitutional double jeopardy, but is protection against subsequent prosecution where the defendant could

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Bluebook (online)
751 S.E.2d 579, 324 Ga. App. 789, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 3787, 2013 WL 6052439, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 938, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pruiett-gactapp-2013.