Glover v. State

393 So. 2d 510, 1981 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2155
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 20, 1981
Docket6 Div. 297
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 393 So. 2d 510 (Glover v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glover v. State, 393 So. 2d 510, 1981 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2155 (Ala. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

DeCARLO, Judge.

Robbery, fifteen years.

The appellant was arraigned on September 4, 1979, and, on February 25, 1980, the date of appellant’s trial, he filed a motion for discovery and a motion to quash the indictment. The motion to quash was denied and the appellant was tried by a jury and convicted.

Three witnesses testified for the State: Mrs. Pearl Marcus, Mrs. Louise Pharo, and Mr. Dennis Bates.

Mrs. Marcus stated that on the morning of May 24, 1979, she was inside Bob and Jacks’s grocery store in Birmingham, Alabama, talking to the sole employee of the store, Mrs. Louise Pharo. Shortly after 8:00 A.M., a black male entered the store and pulled a gun on Mrs. Marcus and Mrs. Pharo. Mrs. Marcus testified that the robber was “kind of medium size, kind of small.” Further, she said he was wearing a “tobbogan on his head, a white shirt with a red and white kind of rose-looking flower on it,” and that he was “five-six or more in height.” According to Mrs. Marcus, the robber, whom she later positively identified in court as the appellant, pointed the gun in her face and told her to lie down on the floor. He ordered Mrs. Pharo to open the cash register and then to lie down “back there” where Mrs. Marcus was. The appellant then threw Mrs. Pharo on her (Mrs. Marcus) while she was lying on the floor.

During the voir dire examination, out of the presence of the jury, Mrs. Marcus testified that, on the afternoon of the robbery, the police showed her a stack of about ten photographs. She stated that one of the [511]*511photographs resembled the person who had robbed her. She said she was later told that it was Victor Glover.

Mrs. Pharo stated that the robber, whom she also identified as the appellant, stuck a small gun toward her face, grabbed her blouse and said, “You bitch, you get over there and open the drawer.” At that time she opened the drawer and “backed off.” The robber then grabbed her purse but she snatched it back and threw it under the cooler. The man grabbed it back again and then threw her against the cashier’s drawer, saying, “You open that drawer, you bitch.” At that point, the robber shoved Mrs. Pharo down onto the floor of the frozen food box. Mrs. Pharo did not see anything after that until a customer came in and called the police.

Mrs. Pharo testified that a money bag or change bag was missing. She stated that she did not know the denominations of the money taken, but that it was “around two hundred dollars.” During cross-examination, Mrs. Pharo said she was told what amount of money had been taken. The court at that time instructed the jury not to consider what Mrs. Pharo had been told by her superiors.

The witness was subsequently excused and the jury was returned to the jury room. Out of the presence of the jury the court told the assistant district attorney that, “You had better prime her. I normally don’t suggest that somebody prime a witness, except to keep from blurting out something that is not admissible.”

Afterwards, the trial was resumed and Mrs. Pharo testified before the jury that the money from the previous night’s receipts was in the register when the robber entered, but that it was not in the register when he left.

The testimony of Dennis Bates corroborated that of Mrs. Marcus and Mrs. Pharo. Mr. Bates stated that he had known the appellant, Victor Antonio Glover, for four or five years and had gone to school with Glover and Tyrone Tinsley. He recalled that, on May 4, 1979, he was at Tyrone Tinsley's house, located about two blocks from Bob and Jack’s grocery store. Tinsley and Glover were also there. Bates said that, about 8:00 A.M., both appellant and Tinsley left the house and within ten or fifteen minutes they returned with a money sack.

At the end of Bates’ testimony, the State rested its case and the appellant moved to exclude the State’s evidence. The motion was overruled and the appellant called two witnesses to testify in his behalf: Charles Simmons and Tyrone Tinsley.

Charles Simmons testified that, on May 24, 1979, about 7:15 A.M., appellant had gone to do yard work with him. Simmons stated that they worked until approximately 4:30 P.M. and then returned home. During cross-examination, Simmons admitted that he was appellant’s brother-in-law.

Tyrone Tinsley, an inmate at Kilby Correctional Center, testified that, on May 24, 1979, he robbed Bob and Jack’s grocery store and later pleaded guilty to that offense. He said the appellant was not the individual who participated in the robbery with him on that date.

I

The appellant complains that the trial court committed reversible error when it overruled his motion to exclude the State’s evidence. He argues that the State failed to establish a prima facie case of robbery because the element of fear was not specifically proved. Moreover, he says that the State showed that the victim exhibited “bravado, not fear.” In support of this contention, the appellant cites Poole v. State, 53 Ala.App. 156, 298 So.2d 85, reversed, 292 Ala. 590, 298 So.2d 89. In Poole, this court listed the following three constituent elements of robbery:

“... (a) felonious intent, (b) force or by putting in fear, and (c) by that means a taking and carrying away from his person or in his presence.”

This court in Baker v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 344 So.2d 547 stated:

“In robbery, the force or intimidation employed is the gist of the offense. The [512]*512manner of taking is in the alternative; if force or violence is used, fear is not an essential ingredient. Conversely, if fear is used, there need be no violence.”

See Vickerstaff v. State, Ala.Cr.App., 374 So.2d 443; Johnson v. State, 57 Ala.App. 238, 327 So.2d 733.

This court in Golston v. State, 57 Ala.App. 623, 330 So.2d 446, recognized that the word “fear” used in connection with the offense of robbery is not to be considered as “an antonym of courage or fortitude.” In Golston, supra, we quoted from 6 Am.Jur.2d Robbery, § 22, as follows:

“No matter how slight the cause creating the fear may be or by what other circumstance the taking may be accomplished, if the transaction is attended with such circumstances of terror, such threatening by word or gesture, as in common experience are likely to create an apprehension of danger and for the sake of his person, the victim is put in fear. Moreover, actual fear need not be strictly and precisely proved, since the law will presume fear if fear is to be just ground for it. And the mere fact that the victim complied with the assailant’s demands is itself indicative of fear. But the putting in fear must be sustained by evidence of acts or conduct or words or circumstances reasonably calculated to effect that result.” (Emphasis added.)

The evidence in the present case shows that the appellant was armed with a pistol, and, after pointing it in the face of the victim, demanded, “You bitch, you get over there and open the drawer.” The only reasonable conclusion that can be reached is the appellant’s conduct caused Mrs. Pharo to have the reasonable apprehension that force would be used against her if she did not comply with his demands. The fact that Mrs. Pharo complied with the robber’s demands was in itself indicative of fear. Golston, supra.

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393 So. 2d 510, 1981 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 2155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glover-v-state-alacrimapp-1981.