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State v. O'Neal

The original trial judge had discretion to deny the defendant's motion to sever similar offenses based on evidence that the defendant used the first victim's stolen car during his robbery and assault of the second victim.

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A jury found Frederick O’Neal guilty of armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and obstruction of a law enforcement officer. O’Neal moved for a new trial, arguing that the trial court erred in denying his pretrial motion to sever.1 The trial court agreed, granting the motion for new trial on this basis. We granted the State’s application for interlocutory appeal and, for reasons that follow, reverse. The evidence presented at trial shows that in the early afternoon on June 4, 1999, Ann Michelle Allen was sitting in a parking lot, cleaning the interior of her white Ford Taurus. An unknown man opened the car door, and Allen saw a man pointing a gun at her. Allen threw her purse at the man and exited the car, but was unable to escape. The assailant then put the gun to Allen’s side and said, “don’t scream or I’m going to kill you.” Allen finally escaped, and the man drove away in her car. At trial, Allen identified O’Neal as the perpetrator.

Around this time in June, Sandra Bonilla, one of O’Neal’s co-workers, noticed that O’Neal was driving a white car with a dealership tag. When Bonilla questioned O’Neal about the dealership tag, he told her that he had a license plate, but he did not have it on the car “because someone was looking for him.”

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