State v. Finlayson

In State v. Finlayson, 2000 UT 10, 994 P.2d 1243, the defendant was convicted of aggravated kidnaping, rape, and forcible sodomy. On appeal, he argued that aggravated kidnaping was a lesser included offense of either rape or forcible sodomy and that his aggravated kidnaping conviction consequently merged into the other convictions. Id. In analyzing that claim, the Court looked first to section Utah Code Ann. 76-1-402 (2003) and noted that, because of the statutory elements of the crimes in question, aggravated kidnaping was not a lesser included offense of either of the other two crimes under that section. The Court consequently concluded that the defendant's aggravated kidnaping conviction did not merge into the other two convictions pursuant to section 76-1-402. Id. P16. The Court recognized, however, that "section 76-1-402 . . . is not the only basis for finding that one set of facts may give rise to a merger of two or more separate crimes so as to preclude a multitude of convictions for essentially the same conduct." Id.