State v. Carroll

Police arrested Alfred Kapala Carroll (defendant) after someone saw him trying to set fire to a school. During a weapons search at the scene, an officer found a canister on Carroll, mistook it for nasal spray, and returned it to him; about an hour later, Carroll was booked for attempted second-degree criminal property damage. A subsequent custodial search again turned up the canister, which was then identified as Mace, leading to a separate charge for possessing an obnoxious substance. Carroll was tried and acquitted on the Mace-possession charge two months before being tried on the property-damage charge; at that second trial, he moved to dismiss, arguing the two offenses were part of a single criminal "episode" that state law required to be prosecuted together. The trial court agreed and dismissed the indictment, and the state appealed.