State v. Johnson ( 2021 )

370
Submitted November 12, 2020, affirmed March 31, petition for review denied
July 29, 2021 (368 Or 511)
STATE OF OREGON,
Plaintiff-Respondent,
v.
COREY LEWIS JOHNSON,
aka Corey Johnson-Fleishman,
aka Corey Louis Johnson,
Defendant-Appellant.
Multnomah County Circuit Court
18CR23703; A170179
484 P3d 402
David F. Rees, Judge.
Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate
Section, and Erin J. Snyder Severe, Deputy Public Defender,
Office of Public Defense Services, filed the brief for appellant.
Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman,
Solicitor General, and Christopher Page, Assistant Attorney
General, filed the brief for respondent.
Before Lagesen, Presiding Judge, and James, Judge, and
Kamins, Judge.
PER CURIAM
Affirmed.
Cite as 310 Or App 370 (2021) 371
PER CURIAM
A jury unanimously found defendant guilty of first-
degree possession of a forged instrument, ORS 165.022.
On appeal, defendant asserts that the trial court erred by
(1) denying a motion to suppress evidence obtained from an
unlawful seizure and (2) providing jury instructions allow-
ing nonunanimous verdicts. We reject the first contention
without written discussion.
As for the second, defendant argues that instructing
the jury that it could return a nonunanimous verdict con-
stituted a structural error requiring reversal. Subsequent
to the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Ramos v.
Louisiana, 590 US ___, 140 S Ct 1390, 206 L Ed 2d 583(2020), the Oregon Supreme Court explained that the deliv-
ery of a nonunanimous jury instruction was not a structural
error that categorically requires reversal. State v. Flores
Ramos, 367 Or 292, 319, 478 P3d 515 (2020). Additionally,
when, as here, the jury’s verdict is unanimous despite the
nonunanimous instruction, such erroneous instruction was
harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Kincheloe, 367
Or 335, 339, 478 P3d 507 (2020). Therefore, we reject defen-
dant’s second assignment of error.
Affirmed.