State v. Richardson

711 P.2d 201, 77 Or. App. 64, 1985 Ore. App. LEXIS 4347
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedDecember 26, 1985
Docket145,615, 144,960; CA A31546, A31547
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 711 P.2d 201 (State v. Richardson) 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. Richardson, 711 P.2d 201, 77 Or. App. 64, 1985 Ore. App. LEXIS 4347 (Or. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

BUTTLER, P. J.

Defendant was convicted by a jury of attempted murder, ORS 161.405,163.115, and first-degree robbery. ORS 164.415. The trial court sentenced him on the attempted murder conviction to 20-years imprisonment, with a 10-year minimum pursuant to ORS 144.110 and a 5-year minimum for the use of a firearm pursuant to ORS 161.610, the minimums to run concurrently. On the robbery conviction, he was sentenced to 10-years imprisonment, with 5-year concurrent minimums pursuant to ORS 161.610 and 144.110. The sentences for the two crimes are to run consecutively. On appeal, defendant contends that the two convictions should have been merged or, in the alternative, that cumulative sentences are improper. He also argues here, although he did not below, that only one five-year minimum may be imposed. We modify the judgment by deleting the second five-year minimum under ORS 161.610; otherwise we affirm.

Defendant entered a retail establishment and pointed a cocked revolver at the only person present, a salesman. He demanded money, and the salesman took money from the floor safe and the cash register and put it in a bag. He then asked defendant what he should do next. Defendant ordered him to put the money on a desk and then walk to the back of the store; he did so. Defendant followed the salesman toward the back of the store and ordered him to enter a restroom. As the salesman reached for the door handle, he was shot in the back, fell inside the restroom and locked the door behind him. A few minutes later, he emerged to telephone for help. By that time, defendant and the money were gone.

But for the problem we discuss below, there would be no question that the facts would permit separate convictions for first-degree robbery and for attempted murder. To support the Robbery I conviction, it was necessary to prove that defendant, in the course of committing theft, used or threatened the immediate use of physical force on the victim with the intent of compelling the victim to deliver the property and that he was armed with a deadly weapon or used or attempted to use a dangerous weapon. ORS 164.415. It is clear that defendant threatened the use of a gun with which he was armed with the intent to compel the victim to deliver the money. The victim did deliver the money when he placed it in [67]*67a bag and, pursuant to instructions, put the bag on the desk. The robbery was completed without a shot being fired.

Thereafter, whether to facilitate his escape, to eliminate a witness or simply out of fright or meanness, defendant shot the victim before leaving the premises with the money. As the jury necessarily found, he did so with the intent to kill. It seems clear, then, that all of the elements of the robbery charge were not necessarily included in the commission of the attempted murder and that all of the elements of the attempted murder were not included in the robbery. Accordingly, this is not a situation in which “true” merger is required.

We turn to the question of whether the legislature intended that separate convictions and sentences could be imposed in this situation, that is, whether there is more than one type of behavior which the legislature intended to prevent separately. State v. Harris, 287 Or 335, 342, 599 P2d 456 (1979). Although it is no panacea, the principal test suggested by the legislature and approved by the courts for determining whether multiple convictions and sentences may be imposed for acts closely connected in time and place is the test of “criminal objective.” State v. Cloutier, 286 Or 579, 596 P2d 1278 (1979). Violation of separate statutes by separate acts against the same victim for separate criminal objectives will support separate convictions and separate sentences. State v. Cloutier, supra, 286 Or at 598-99; State v. Strickland, 36 Or App 119, 584 P2d 310 (1978). Here, in order to have convicted defendant of both attempted murder and first-degree robbery, the jury necessarily found both an intent to kill, ORS 161.405(1); ORS 163.115(1) (a), and an intent to take or retain property, ORS 164.415; 164.395, each of which is a separate criminal objective.

The jury verdict of separate criminal .objectives is justified by the record. Because defendant had separated the money from the victim and had control over it before he directed the victim to go to the back of the store, he had already achieved his objective of taking property before he shot the victim as he entered the restroom.

“* * * One may have fully achieved the immediate goal of the particular offense committed toward a victim although one has not gained one’s wider objective. * * *
[68]*68“* * * It is not necessarily true that a continuous sequence of criminal acts directed at a single victim can lead to only one sentence.* * *” State v. Kessler, 297 Or 460, 465, 686 P2d 345 (1984).

On the evidence adduced by the state and necessarily accepted by the jury, State v. Fickes, 36 Or App 361, 584 P2d 770 (1978) and State v. Steele, 33 Or App 491, 577 P2d 524 (1978), rev den 285 Or 195 (1979), are not controlling. The rule established by those cases is that separate convictions may not be entered “when the state relies upon precisely the same act to establish the use-physical-force element of robbery and the cause-physical-injury element of assault * * *.” State v. Steele, supra, 33 Or App at 497. State v. Fickes, supra, extended that principle to attempted murder and robbery. However, in Fickes, the defendant had used physical force to compel the victim to deliver his wallet and had contemporaneously thrown the victim into a log pond to overcome resistance to retention of the wallet. Here, there is no evidence of the use of force to obtain the money; the victim did as he was told and did not resist. The shooting occurred afterward, and it was the state’s theory that defendant intended to kill the victim in order to eliminate a witness. Fickes does not apply when the state proves, as here, separate acts to establish the elements of separate crimes with different criminal objectives. See State v. Keys, 54 Or App 575, 578, 635 P2d 1039 (1981), rev den 292 Or 568 (1982), in which the injury used to establish assault was a gratuitous injury not necessary to the robbery.

Here, the shooting was not necessary to the robbery, and the state proved separate acts at trial: defendant pointed a gun at the victim to persuade him to turn over the money.

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Related

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823 P.2d 981 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1991)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
711 P.2d 201, 77 Or. App. 64, 1985 Ore. App. LEXIS 4347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-richardson-orctapp-1985.