213
Submitted July 16, 2020; in Case No. 18CR05809, affirmed; in Case No. 18CR07290,
reversed and remanded for merger of the guilty verdicts on Counts 1 and 2,
remanded for resentencing, otherwise affirmed June 9; petition for review
denied September 16, 2021 (368 Or 560)
STATE OF OREGON,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
TRACEY BRAMLETT COATS,
Defendant-Appellant.
Lane County Circuit Court
18CR05809, 18CR07290;
A168956 (Control), A168957
491 P3d 89
Among other criminal activity leading to this consolidated appeal, defendant took without permission a trailer and an ATV from All Seasons Equipment
during the same criminal episode. At trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty
on Count 1, unauthorized use of a vehicle (UUV) for unlawfully taking the ATV,
and Count 2, UUV for unlawfully taking the trailer. The trial court did not
merge those verdicts. Among other contentions on appeal, defendant contends
that the guilty verdicts on Counts 1 and 2 in Case No. 18CR07290 should merge.
Held: The trial court erred in failing to merge Counts 1 and 2. On this record,
there was no evidence of cessation of defendant’s criminal conduct between taking the trailer and the ATV. Further, defendant’s conduct involved the same victim, criminal episode, and violation of the same statutory provision. See ORS
161.067.
In Case No. 18CR05809, affirmed. In Case No. 18CR07290, reversed and
remanded for merger of the guilty verdicts on Counts 1 and 2; remanded for
resentencing; otherwise affirmed.
Karrie K. McIntyre, Judge.
Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate
Section, and Zachary Lovett Mazer, Deputy Public Defender,
Office of Public Defense Services, filed the opening brief for
appellant. Tracey Coats filed the supplemental brief pro se.
Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman,
Solicitor General, and Philip Thoennes, Assistant Attorney
General, filed the brief for respondent.
Before Lagesen, Presiding Judge, and James, Judge, and
Kamins, Judge.
214 State v. Coats
LAGESEN, P. J.
In Case No. 18CR05809, affirmed. In Case No.
18CR07290, reversed and remanded for merger of the guilty
verdicts on Counts 1 and 2; remanded for resentencing;
otherwise affirmed.
Cite as 312 Or App 213 (2021) 215
LAGESEN, P. J.
This is a consolidated appeal in which defendant
challenges convictions for unauthorized use of a vehicle
(UUV), felony fleeing or attempting to elude, and first-degree theft. He was convicted of one count of UUV and one
count of felony attempting to elude in Case No. 18CR05809.
In Case No. 18CR07290, he was convicted of four counts of
UUV (Counts 1 to 4), first-degree theft (Count 6), and first-degree criminal mischief (Count 7). The cases were tried
together. The long and the short of it, defendant took a number of vehicles, mainly to cut them up for parts to sell. He
also took a U-Haul van, which he used for hauling parts. On
appeal, he contends that the trial court (1) plainly erred by
failing to strike or otherwise address what defendant contends is vouching testimony; (2) plainly erred by not delivering concurrence instructions with respect to each count of
UUV; (3) plainly erred by instructing the jury that it could
return a nonunanimous verdict (the jury was not polled);
(4) erred by failing to merge the guilty verdicts of UUV on
Counts 1 and 2 in Case No. 18CR07290; (5) erred in denying
defendant’s motion to suppress; and (6) erred in not excluding defendant’s text messages. We agree with defendant on
the merger issue but otherwise affirm.
We start with the alleged vouching issue. The following exchange occurred as defense counsel cross-examined
Detective Lowe, who investigated defendant’s crimes, about
Nuroth, one of the witnesses against defendant:
“[DEFENSE COUNSEL:] What did you tell Mr. Nuroth
about possible charges?
“[LOWE:] I’m referring back to my report. Like I usually do, what’s typical is I told him that if he cooperated, I
could talk to the district attorney and let them know about
his cooperation level. And honestly, I know Mr. Nuroth
from the past, and he’s always been halfway cooperative.
And if he’s in a rock and a hard place, he’ll pretty much tell
you the truth.”
Defendant did not object to the detective’s remark about
Nuroth “pretty much” telling the truth when he has been
between “a rock and a hard place,” and the trial court did
not otherwise intervene. On appeal, defendant asserts that
216 State v. Coats
it is plain that Lowe’s testimony was prohibited vouching
testimony, such that the trial court had the obligation to
strike it absent an objection from defendant.
“For an error to be plain error, it must be an error
of law, obvious and not reasonably in dispute, and apparent
on the record without requiring the court to choose among
competing inferences.” State v. Vanornum, 354 Or 614, 629,
317 P3d 889 (2013). We disagree that Lowe’s testimony was
so obviously impermissible vouching testimony that the
trial court was required to intervene absent an objection.
“ ‘Vouching’ refers to the expression of one’s personal opinion
about the credibility of a witness.” State v. Sperou,
365 Or
121, 128,
442 P3d 581 (2019). As the Supreme Court has recognized, “certain statements might be vouching in some contexts but not others.”
Id. Here, in context, it is not plain that
Lowe’s statement was vouching for Nuroth’s credibility with
respect to either his testimony at trial or any out-of-court
statements. For one, Lowe’s statements appear to refer to
his past experience with Nuroth and do not plainly refer to
anything Nuroth said about the instant case. Additionally,
Lowe’s comment on Nuroth was qualified to the extent that
it suggested that Nuroth in the past was “halfway cooperative,” and would “pretty much tell you the truth” when he
was between “a rock and a hard place.” Given the qualified
nature of the statement and its apparent reference to the
past, it is not plain that the statement was impermissible
vouching. The trial court’s failure to address the statement
on its own was not plain error.
In the second through sixth assignments of error,
defendant contends that the trial court plainly erred in not
delivering jury concurrence instructions with respect to
the various counts of UUV. In defendant’s view, the prosecution’s case on those counts both presented the jury with
alternative factual occurrences for each count and alternative legal theories. Having considered the arguments on the
point and the record, the alleged instructional errors are not
obvious ones and, thus, as with the first assignment of error,
any error is not plain.
In the seventh assignment of error, defendant contends that the trial court plainly erred in instructing the jury
Cite as 312 Or App 213 (2021) 217
that it could return nonunanimous verdicts. The jury was
not polled. Under these circumstances, although the trial
court’s instruction was erroneous, the error is not a ground
for reversal for the reasons stated in State v. Dilallo,
367 Or
340, 346-49,
478 P3d 509 (2020).
Finally, in the eighth assignment of error, defendant
contends that the trial court erred by not merging the guilty
verdicts for UUV on Counts 1 and 2 in Case No. 18CR07290.
Those counts were based on defendant’s conduct of taking
a trailer and an ATV from All Seasons Equipment (All
Seasons) during the same criminal episode. In a nutshell,
the evidence at trial showed that defendant and an accomplice (1) took a Chevy Duramax truck from Competition
Auto Sales, All Seasons’ neighboring business; (2) attached
a chain to the truck and used it to pull down the gate to All
Seasons’ parking lot; (3) attached All Seasons’ trailer to the
Duramax; (4) drove an ATV belonging to All Seasons onto
the trailer; and (5) left the premises with the trailer and the
truck, which were ultimately found in different locations.
Count 1 alleged that defendant committed UUV through his
unlawful taking of the ATV; Count 2 alleged that defendant
committed UUV through his unlawful taking of the trailer.
On appeal, defendant contends that the guilty verdicts should merge and that no provision of ORS 161.067
precludes merger. Defendant points out that there is no
dispute that each UUV occurred during the same criminal
episode and involved a violation of the same statutory provision, meaning that ORS 161.067(1) does not apply to preclude merger. See State v. Paye, 310 Or App 408, 420,
486 P3d
808 (2021) (explaining when ORS 161.067(1) bars merger).
Defendant next points out that each UUV count involved
the same victim, All Seasons, meaning ORS 161.067(2) does
not apply to preclude merger. See
id. at 425 (explaining when
ORS 161.067(2) bars merger). Finally, defendant argues that
we should not address whether ORS 161.067(3) bars merger
because, in defendant’s view, the state did not argue the
point below, something that defendant contends would have
allowed the record to develop differently.
In response, the state argues that ORS 161.067(3)
bars merger because the record reflects that the UUV of the
218 State v. Coats
trailer and the UUV of the ATV were separated by a “sufficient pause in the defendant’s criminal conduct to afford the
defendant an opportunity to renounce the criminal intent.”
ORS 161.067(3). The state points out that the record demonstrates that defendant obtained the trailer from one portion
of the All Seasons parking lot, attached it to the truck, drove
it to a different portion of the parking lot, and then loaded
the ATV onto it. Those circumstances, in the state’s view,
gave defendant plenty of time to change his mind about
whether to engage in the unauthorized use of the ATV in
addition to his unauthorized use of the trailer.
As the parties appear to recognize, ORS 161.067(3)
is the only provision of ORS 161.067 that plausibly operates
to preclude merger on these facts; ORS 161.067(1) and (2) are
plainly inapplicable, so we infer that the trial court relied
on ORS 161.067(3) in declining to merge the guilty verdicts,
although the court did not explain its ruling on the record.
We conclude further that the court erred. This record does
not support an inference that defendant’s unlawful use of
the trailer is separated from his unlawful use of the ATV by
a sufficient pause within the meaning of ORS 161.067(3).
A “sufficient pause” for purposes of ORS 161.067(3)
means a “temporary or brief cessation of a defendant’s criminal conduct that occurs between repeated violations and is
so marked in scope or quality that it affords a defendant the
opportunity to renounce his or her criminal intent.” State
v. Huffman, 234 Or App 177, 184,
227 P3d 1206 (2010). The
problem here is that the record evidences no cessation at all
of defendant’s unlawful use of the trailer before defendant
commenced the unlawful use of the ATV. Defendant’s unlawful use of the trailer was part and parcel with his unlawful
use of the ATV; in a very short period of time, he used the
trailer without authorization for the purpose of hauling off,
also without authorization, the ATV. Although, as the state
points out, defendant may have had time to change his mind
about taking the ATV after he began his unlawful use of the
trailer, that is not the question, or at least not the only question when it comes to evaluating whether there has been
a sufficient pause for purposes of ORS 161.067(3). Under
our case law, a defendant’s unlawful conduct must cease at
Cite as
312 Or App 213 (2021) 219
least temporarily in order to give rise to a sufficient pause
within the meaning of ORS 161.067(3). That did not happen
here. We therefore must reverse and remand for merger of
the guilty verdicts on Counts 1 and 2 and resentencing. We
otherwise affirm.
In Case No. 18CR05809, affirmed. In Case No.
18CR07290, reversed and remanded for merger of the guilty
verdicts on Counts 1 and 2; remanded for resentencing;
otherwise affirmed.
