State v. Hathaway

Defendant was convicted of five counts of identity theft, ORS 165.800, and one count of giving false information to a peace officer for arrest on a warrant, ORS 162.385(1)(b). The identity theft counts were based on defendants possession of the victims purse, which contained five different forms of the victims personal identification. The court entered a conviction for each count of identity theft. On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court erred in entering those separate convictions and that the identity theft convictions should have merged. In defendants view, this case is indistinguishable from State v. Mac Donald, 232 Or App 431, 432, 222 P3d 718 (2009), a case in which we held that the defendants possession of the victims wallet, which contained various different forms of personal identification, constituted a single criminal episode for the purposes of merger of convictions. The state concedes that the trial court erred in entering the separate convictions in this case.