State v. Robins

The State appeals from the trial court’s grant of defendants Mark Robins, Jeff Martin, Arthur Smith, John Kelly, Jr., Sharon Lincoln, and Vanessa Smith’s plea in bar to their prosecution. The court found that the statute of limitation had run on the charges brought against defendants and the State had not carried its burden of proving that the statute was tolled. We agree and affirm. The charges against the five defendants were conspiracy to defraud the State, OCGA § 16-10-21, and four counts of conspiracy in restraint of free and open competition, OCGA § 16-10-22. The statute of limitation for the charged crimes was four years. See OCGA § 17-3-1 c. The last act alleged in the indictment to be in furtherance of any conspiracy was March 18, 2002. Accordingly, the statute of limitation would have run on these crimes by March 17, 2006.

The defendants were indicted on April 5, 2006. The indictment alleged that the crimes did not fall outside the statute of limitation because the crimes were unknown until April 16, 2002. See OCGA § 17-3-2 2 which provides: “The period within which a prosecution must be commenced under Code Section 17-3-1 or other applicable statute does not include any period in which: 2 The person committing the crime is unknown or the crime is unknown.”