Anderson v. State

426 N.E.2d 674, 1981 Ind. LEXIS 874
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 14, 1981
Docket980S382
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 426 N.E.2d 674 (Anderson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. State, 426 N.E.2d 674, 1981 Ind. LEXIS 874 (Ind. 1981).

Opinion

DeBRULER, Justice.

Reginald Anderson, the appellant, was charged with burglary, a class B felony, in violation of Ind.Code § 35-43-2-1, and was convicted of the charge after a jury trial. In addition, the State sought to have Anderson sentenced as an habitual offender pursuant to Ind.Code § 35-50-2-8. The jury found that Anderson was an habitual offender. The trial court sentenced him to imprisonment for ten years on the burglary charge and a “consecutive” term of thirty years on the habitual offender finding, making a total of forty years.

I.

Anderson was charged with breaking and entering a dwelling with intent to commit theft of property.

The first claim is that there was insufficient evidence of his intent to commit a felony and that the trial court therefore erred in overruling his motion for a directed verdict. The burglary statute provides:

“A person who breaks and enters the building or structure of another person, with intent to commit a felony in it, commits burglary, a class C felony. However, the offense is a class B felony if it is committed while armed with a deadly weapon or if the building or structure is a dwelling, and a class A felony if it results in either bodily injury or serious bodily injury to any other person.”

Anderson argues that there was no evidence that he intended to commit a theft and no evidence that any things were taken from the house that was broken into. He asserts that the evidence established only *676 that there was a breaking and entering of a dwelling house, and that he was found by police near the house. Indeed, Anderson argues, the fact that he left the dwelling without taking anything demonstrated the absence of the intent to commit a felony.

Two cases have held that convictions for burglary could not be sustained merely by evidence of breaking and entering or entry without consent: Faulkner v. State, (1973) 260 Ind. 82, 292 N.E.2d 594; and Crawford v. State, (1968) 251 Ind. 437, 241 N.E.2d 795. Faulkner, Anderson acknowledges, was expressly overruled in Carter v. State, (1976) 265 Ind. 535, 356 N.E.2d 220, to the extent that it did not permit an inference of specific intent from the breaking and entering of a building at 2:00 a. m. by a defendant armed with a revolver. He urges, however, that since no weapon was involved in the breaking and entering here, the Faulkner rationale that proof of the breaking and entering element is not sufficient to establish proof of the intent element should apply-

Similarly, in Crawford v. State, supra, this Court held that an inference of intent to commit a felony could not be drawn merely from the fact that a defendant was in a garage without the consent of the owner or manager. Crawford was expressly overruled (Lisenko v. State, [1976] 265 Ind. 488, 355 N.E.2d 841) to the extent that it did not permit an inference of specific intent from defendants’ failure to explain their presence at 4:00 a. m. in a building to which they gained entry by prying open a door, and from their statement to a police officer, who responded to an alarm, that they “gave up.” Anderson urges that since no statement was made in his case, the rationale of Crawford should apply.

We agree that the mere breaking and entering of a dwelling does not constitute evidence of intent to commit a felony. But the inferences permitted in Carter, supra and Lisenko, supra, constitute circumstantial evidence that goes beyond the mere fact of breaking and entering and may support the intent element. The record in this case supports even more than the indirect inferences permitted in Carter and Lisenko. Joe Tillman, a fifteen-year-old boy who lived with his family in the house Anderson entered, gave the following testimony: He was at home alone in his upstairs bedroom when he heard the sound of breaking glass. He called his aunt and the police, procured a gun from his mother’s bedroom, and hid in his closet. He heard one intruder come upstairs. This intruder said, “look, there’s a big old T.Y., too heavy to carry.” A second voice downstairs said, “go to the next room,” and then the person upstairs said, “ain’t nothing but a bunch of dolls in here.”

On review of claims of insufficient evidence, this Court does not weigh the evidence or resolve questions or credibility but looks to the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom that support the verdict. Smith v. State, (1970) 254 Ind. 401, 260 N.E.2d 558. The conviction will be affirmed if from that viewpoint there is evidence of probative value from which a reasonable trier of fact could infer, that appellant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Glover v. State, (1970) 253 Ind. 536, 255 N.E.2d 657; Taylor v. State, (1973) 260 Ind. 64, 291 N.E.2d 890.

The evidence given by Joe Tillman was sufficient to support the inference that Anderson, who was seen by Tillman in his bedroom and identified by him shortly after he and his accomplice fled the house, intended to commit a felony — theft—upon breaking and entering the Tillman house. The trial court did not err in denying the motion for a directed verdict.

II.

Anderson’s next two issues, which we combine for review, concern the claims that the evidence on the habitual offender allegation was inadmissible, that the State failed to establish a prima facie case that he was an habitual offender, and that the trial court erred in denying a directed verdict on the question, because the testimony and documentary evidence of his prior felony convictions did not adequately identify him as an habitual offender, citing Smith v. *677 State, (1962) 243 Ind. 74, 181 N.E.2d 520. The statute provides:

“(a) The state may seek to have a person sentenced as an habitual offender for any felony by alleging, on a page separate from the rest of the charging instrument, that the person has accumulated two prior unrelated felony convictions. A person who is found to be an habitual offender shall be imprisoned for an additional fixed term of thirty years, to be added to the fixed term of imprisonment imposed under section 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 of this chapter.

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Bluebook (online)
426 N.E.2d 674, 1981 Ind. LEXIS 874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-state-ind-1981.