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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA No. 99-KK-3235 STATE OF LOUISIANA v. JOSEPH MORRIS On Writ of Certiorari to the First Circuit Court of Appeal

PER CURIAM:* The ruling of the trial court is reversed and this case is remanded to the district court for purposes of rehearing the motion to quash. The trial court erred in giving the state the benefit of the doubt on the issue of prescription. Once the accused shows

that the state has failed to bring him to trial within the time periods specified by La.C.Cr.P. art. 578, the state bears a heavy burden of demonstrating that either an interruption or a suspension of the time limit tolled prescription. State v.

Joseph, 93-2734, p. 1 (La. 6/3/94), 637 So.2d 1033; State v. Rome, 630 So.2d 1284, 1286 (La. 1994); State v. Estill, 614 So.2d 709, 710 (La. 1993). In the present case, the state filed its

bill of information charging relator with fourth offense D.W.I. on February 7, 1997, and it therefore had until February 7, 1999, to bring relator to trial. La.C.Cr.P. art. 578(2). Even

assuming that relator asked the court on February 12, 1997, to continue his arraignment set for that date, a motion for a continuance suspends, not interrupts, the running of prescription "until the ruling of the court thereon." La.C.Cr.P. art. 580;

see State v. Fabacher, 362 So.2d 555, 556 (La. 1978); State v.
*

Lemmon, J., not on panel.

See La. S.Ct. Rule IV, Part II,

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