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State v. McCraine5/16/2003
did not designate magistrate courts, or the predecessor justice of the peace courts, as courts of record. *fn9
Historically, no centralized method of record keeping was statutorily prescribed under the justice of the peace system, and each justice of the peace was responsible for his or her own docket books as well as records of judicial determinations and fiscal transactions. The general means by which occurrences in the justice of the peace court were proven in subsequent court proceedings was through the in-person testimony of the justice of the peace. With the 1976 amendment and reenactment of Chapter 50 of the West Virginia Code to establish magistrate courts in the state, the Legislature directed the development of a consolidated system of record keeping for the magistrate courts by requiring the clerk of each magistrate court "to establish and maintain appropriate dockets and records in a centralized system for the magistrate court." W.Va. Code § 50-1-8. See also W.Va. Code § 50-3-7 (records of completed magistrate court proceedings to be forwarded and maintained by magistrate court clerk in accord with rules of the supreme court of appeals); W.Va. Admin. R. Mag. Ct. 12 (magistrate court clerks to maintain magistrate court records according to the prescribed record retention schedule). In short, magistrate court clerks are the statutorily designated custodians of magistrate court records.
This court has heretofore recognized that court documents are public records which qualify them as an exception to hearsay and, when certified by the custodian, are self authenticating documents under the West Virginia Rules of Evidence, Rule 803 (8)(A) *fn10 and Rule 902 (4) *fn11 respectively. See State v. Morris, 203 W.Va. 504, 509 S.E.2d 327 (1998); Hess v. Arbogast, 180 W.Va. 319, 376 S.E.2d 333 (1988). See also W.Va. R. Evid. 1005 (certified copy of public record admissible as original) and W.Va. Code § 57-1-7 (1923) (Repl. Vol. 1997) (attested copy of a court record admissible in lieu of original). Procedurally, official public records are proven in circuit court criminal proceedings in the same manner as that used in civil cases. W.Va. R. Crim. P. 27. Accordingly, court records "may be evidenced . . . by a copy attested by the officer having the legal custody of the record, or by the officer's deputy, and accompanied by a certificate that such officer has the custody." W.Va. R. Civ. 44. Consequently, absent specific questions with respect to the trustworthiness of the document, variance of the certified copies from the originals or similar challenges to the validity or contents of the certified record, court clerks would not need to be routinely called as witnesses in order for documents of a court to be properly admitted into evidence.
As a result of our review, we find no basis to reverse the lower court's denial of the motion to dismiss.
C. Motion to Sever
The question of whether to grant a motion to sever is generally within the sound discretion of the trial court. Syl. Pt. 6, State v. Mitter, 168 W.Va. 531, 285 S.E.2d 376 (1981). However, as we have recently decided, a trial court's discretion is significantly narrowed when the severance request is made pursuant to a criminal defendant's statutory right to trial in magistrate court and the request poses no conflict with double jeopardy principles. State ex rel. Games-Neely v. Sanders, 211 W.Va. 297, 565 S.E.2d 419 (2002).
Appellant alleges that the lower court committed reversible error by not severing the two charges in the indictment when Appellant requested such severance at a pretrial hearing because a unitary trial of both offenses would create a substantial risk of prejudice. At the time the present
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