Harris v. Com.
| Decision Date | 16 September 1977 |
| Citation | 556 S.W.2d 669 |
| Parties | Alvin HARRIS, Appellant, v. COMMONWEALTH of Kentucky, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
Pamela M. Greenwell, Asst. Dist. Defender, Louisville, for appellant.
Robert F. Stephens, Atty. Gen., Sam E. Isaacs, II, Asst. Atty. Gen., Frankfort, for appellee.
On March 11, 1976, the Jefferson County Grand Jury returned two separate indictments charging the appellant, Alvin Manuel Harris, with four counts of robbery in the first degree, KRS 515.020. The first indictment, No. 156342, accused him of robbing a Gulf service station located at 2007 South Seventh Street, Louisville, on December 28, 1975, and a grocery store, the Itty Bitty Food Market, also located in Louisville, on January 14, 1976. The second indictment, No. 156343, charged appellant with robbing a Gulf service station located at 2701 Broadway in Louisville twice, once on December 31, 1975, and again on January 15, 1976. The charges were consolidated for trial. Harris was acquitted of the December 28, 1975, robbery of the service station, but convicted of the three remaining charges. He was sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment for the grocery store robbery, and ten years each for the other offenses, all of which were to run concurrently. Three assignments of error are raised by his appeal.
Appellant initially alleges the trial court committed reversible error by consolidating the four charged offenses for trial. We disagree. Under RCr 6.18, 9.12 and 9.16, offenses which are similar in character or are based on the same acts connected together or constituting parts of a common scheme or plan may, within the discretion of the trial court, be joined for trial. Edwards v. Commonwealth, Ky., 500 S.W.2d 396 (1973); Cargill v. Commonwealth, Ky., 528 S.W.2d 735 (1975). A conviction resulting from a trial in which a motion for separation of the charged offenses has been denied will be reversed on appeal only if the refusal of the trial court to grant such a severance is found to amount to a clear abuse of discretion and prejudice to the defendant is positively shown. Spencer v. Commonwealth, Ky., 554 S.W.2d 355 (1977); Russell v. Commonwealth, Ky., 482 S.W.2d 584 (1972). From our review of the record and briefs in the present case, we find the evidence relative to the four criminal occurrences shows them to be closely related in character, circumstances and time. We further find the failure by the appellant to relate to this court the manner in which he perceives himself prejudiced by the alleged misjoinder of offenses for trial. In these circumstances, we must reject appellant's claim of error.
Appellant next argues the trial court...
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