State v. Harvey

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of various crimes, including assault in the second degree and assault in the second degree as an accessory, in connection with the stabbings of two victims, M and D, the defendant appealed. During an altercation in M's residence, which lasted approximately one minute, the defendant stabbed M repeatedly while another man, H, attacked D, and, after the defendant yelled for help, H began stabbing M. Approximately two years after the incident, D sent M a newspaper article containing photographs of the defendant and H and indicating that they had been arrested in connec- tion with the stabbings. Several months later, the lead detective on the case contacted M and obtained a written statement from him indicating that the men in the newspaper article were the same men who had assaulted him and D. On appeal, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that his conviction of and subsequent punishment for both assault in the second degree and assault in the second degree as an accessory violated the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. Held: The defendant's conviction of and subsequent punishment for both assault in the second degree and assault in the second degree as an accessory violated the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy, as the evidence reflected that the stabbings arose from a continuous course of conduct, they were based on the same act or transaction for double jeopardy purposes and, thus, they implicated the prohibition against multiple punishments for a single act; accordingly, this court vacated the defendant's conviction of assault in the second degree as an accessory. The evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's conviction of assault in the first degree as an accessory with respect to the stabbing of D, as the evidence supported a finding that the defendant and H communicated with one another, traveled to the city in which M lived, and engaged in assaultive conduct in M's residence as part of a cr