New Hampshire v. Collins
Annotate this CaseDefendant Steven Collins was convicted by jury on one count of aggravated felonious sexual assault (AFSA), and two counts of felonious sexual assault (FSA). The three charges involved the same victim. The AFSA charge alleged a "pattern" of sexual assaults and the two FSA charged alleged specific instances of sexual assault. On appeal, defendant argued the trial court erred by: (1) denying defendant’s motion to dismiss the pattern AFSA charge for insufficient evidence that the sexual assaults occurred “over a period of 2 months or more” as required by RSA 632-A:1, I-c (2007); (2) overruling the defendant’s objection to the State’s closing argument, which allegedly advocated for the use of a prior inconsistent statement as substantive evidence; and (3) imposing a sentence on one of the FSA convictions to run consecutively to the sentence on the pattern AFSA conviction in violation of the federal Double Jeopardy Clause. After review, the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court as to defendant's first two alleged errors on appeal. With regard to his Double Jeopardy claim, in the absence of a jury instruction, the Court had no way of knowing whether defendant was being punished twice for the same act. Accordingly, since the Court could not exclude the possibility that defendant was subjected to multiple punishments for the same act, it concluded that defendant’s rights under the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Federal Constitution were violated. Defendant requested only that the Supreme Court vacate the consecutive sentence imposed for one of the FSA convictions. He did not ask that the sentence imposed for the other FSA conviction or the FSA convictions themselves. Accordingly, the Court vacated only the sentence on the FSA conviction which was imposed to run consecutively to the AFSA sentence.
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