- Court: Oregon Court of Appeals
- Area(s) of Law: Criminal Law
- Date Filed: 03-05-2014
- Case #: A150704
- Judge(s)/Court Below: Hadlock, J. for the Court; Sercombe, P.J.; and Tookey, J.
Defendant appealed convictions of second-degree robbery, ORS 164.405, and second-degree kidnapping, ORS 163.225. On appeal, Defendant argued that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for judgment of acquittal, because the State did not prove that the offenses occurred in Multnomah County. At trial Defendant raised the venue issue at the close of the State’s case. Under current law, a defendant is required to raise a venue issue through a pretrial motion, but this was not the state of the law at the time of Defendant’s trial. The Court held that it would be unfair to rule that Defendant had given up his right to challenge venue, because at the time of the trial the law did not require venue issues to be raised in pretrial motions. Reversed and remanded.