In accordance with the Unified Appeal Procedure, we granted the application for interim review in this death penalty case. The State charged Byron Jenkins with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, three counts of armed robbery, kidnapping with bodily injury, burglary, and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Jenkins filed a plea in bar seeking dismissal of all the charges except for murder and felony murder because of the expiration of the statute of limitations, and also challenged the admissibility of certain hearsay statements that the trial court had ruled admissible under the necessity exception. We requested that the parties address these two issues: 1 if the trial court properly ruled that the statute of limitations had expired and was not tolled for all the charges except murder and felony murder, should the trial court still submit that particular issue to the jury; and 2 are Arthur Jenkins’s statements to the police admissible under the necessity exception to the rule against hearsay evidence
It is uncontroverted that the State did not indict Jenkins until more than seven years had passed since his alleged commission of the crimes, but the State argued that the statute of limitations was tolled during that period because they did not know the identity of the perpetrator. Although the trial court found that the statute of limitations had expired on all the charges except for murder and felony murder, it still ruled that the tolling question should be submitted to the jury at trial. We conclude that the trial court properly concluded as a matter of law that the statute of limitations had expired and was not tolled for all the charges except murder and felony murder, and that the trial court erred by ruling that the issue must still be submitted to the jury.
