STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. HASSAN A. REID (14-02-0224 AND 14-02-0234, MIDDLESEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (A-0985-17T3)
The State appeals the trial court's dismissal of two Middlesex County indictments charging defendant with committing an armed robbery in Perth Amboy, conspiracy, and firearms possessory offenses. The court dismissed those charges because defendant had already pled guilty and been convicted in Monmouth County to having illegally possessed firearms in Asbury Park, weapons that were confiscated after the robbery in Perth Amboy occurred.
In particular, the victim of the robbery identified defendant as having brandished a silver or gray handgun and wearing a shoulder holster. Five days after the robbery, police officers executed a warrant for defendant's arrest issued by a judge in Middlesex County. The officers found defendant in a home in Monmouth County, along with two guns, one of which was silver or gray in color, and a shoulder holster.
The trial court reasoned that the Monmouth County and Middlesex County charges were sufficiently related to require them to be pursued in a single coordinated prosecution. Consequently, the court ruled the State's failure to combine the charges before the entry of the judgment of conviction in Monmouth barred his later prosecution in Middlesex.
The issues on appeal concern principles of mandatory joinder, double jeopardy, and continuing offenses. Applying those principles, the panel partially affirms the trial court's dismissal order with modification, reverses the order in part, and remand the matter for trial on certain counts of the indictments in Middlesex County. More specifically, and subject to certain caveats detailed in this opinion, the Middlesex prosecution on the armed robbery and conspiracy-to-rob counts is reinstated, but the weapons possession counts remain dismissed.
