Hall v. Commonwealth

551 S.W.3d 7
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 22, 2018
Docket2016-SC-000660-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 551 S.W.3d 7 (Hall v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hall v. Commonwealth, 551 S.W.3d 7 (Mo. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT BY CHIEF JUSTICE MINTON

*11A circuit court jury convicted Carlis Hall of three misdemeanors (theft by unlawful taking, under $500; resisting arrest; and third-degree terroristic threatening) and four felonies (theft by unlawful taking, over $500 but less than $10,000; first-degree fleeing or evading; and two counts of first-degree wanton endangerment), and recommended a sentence totaling 20 years' imprisonment (365 days for each of the misdemeanors to be concurrently run with each other and five years for each felony to be consecutively run).

The trial court's final judgment imposed the recommended sentence and further imposed $50 of the fines recommended by the jury together with court costs and court facility fees. Hall now appeals the resulting judgment as a matter of right.1

We reverse the judgment on three issues: (1) the imposition of the $50 fine; (2) the conviction for theft by unlawful taking, over $500 but less than $10,000; and (3) the resisting arrest conviction. We affirm the remainder of the judgment and remand the case to the trial court for entry of a new judgment consistent with this opinion.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND.

The events culminating in Carlis Hall's multiple charges and convictions began when Walmart employees notified police that he fled the store without paying for a flashlight and drove away in an automobile.

Officer Everidge located Hall in his automobile from the description given by Walmart and signaled for the driver to pull over. As Officer Everidge pulled in behind the automobile, Hall emerged from it and ran. Officer Everidge pursued Hall on foot. Officer Maggard arrived at the scene and left her cruiser to join the chase. Hall made his way back to Officer Maggard's cruiser, got in, and closed and locked the door. Officer Everidge broke the window of the cruiser and reached through the broken window in attempt to grab Hall, but Hall managed to free himself and sped away in Officer Maggard's cruiser.

Officer Everidge, joined by Officer Jones, attempted to pursue Hall in their police cruisers, reaching speeds of over 110 mph. Officer Everidge saw Hall turn onto a dirt road that led toward a strip mine before losing sight of him.

The officers found the cruiser abandoned on a dirt road down in a gully. It appears from the record as though Hall possessed the cruiser for less than 30 minutes. Three days later, police found Hall and arrested him.

II. ANALYSIS.

A. Trial Court Erred When It Denied Hall's Motion for Directed Verdict on the Charge of First-Degree Theft by Unlawful Taking, Over $500 but Less Than $10,000.

Hall argues that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for directed verdict on the charge of first-degree theft by unlawful taking, over $500 but less than $10,000. At the close of all the evidence, Hall moved for directed verdict on the charge and specifically argued that the Commonwealth failed to prove he intended to deprive the police department of its cruiser. The motion properly preserves this issue for appellate review.

*12"On appellate review, the test of a directed verdict is, if under the evidence as a whole, it would be clearly unreasonable for a jury to find guilt, only then the defendant is entitled to a directed verdict of acquittal."2 So we shall only overturn the trial court's denial of Hall's motion for directed verdict if it was clearly unreasonable for the jury to find guilt in Hall for this charge. Hall argues that no proof existed as to his intent to deprive , and thus the trial court should have granted his motion for directed verdict on this charge.

Hall also argues that the trial court erred when it refused to instruct the jury on the charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, a lesser-included offense of first-degree theft by unlawful taking. Because we conclude that the trial court should have granted Hall's motion for directed verdict, we need not reach this issue.

Hall's argument implicates a larger issue surrounding KRS 514.030(1)(a) and 514.010(1) -specifically, the meaning of intent to deprive under the first definition of deprive given in KRS 514.010(1)(a), i.e. possessing the intent to withhold property of another permanently. KRS 514.030(1)(a) states, "[A] person is guilty of theft by unlawful taking or disposition when he unlawfully: Takes or exercises control over movable property of another with intent to deprive him thereof."3 KRS 514.010(1) defines Deprive to mean: "(a) To withhold property of another permanently or for so extended a period as to appropriate a major portion of its economic value or with intent to restore only upon payment of reward or other compensation; or (b) to dispose of the property so as to make it unlikely that the owner will recover it."

Regarding the trial court's denial of Hall's directed verdict motion on his theft charge, Hall argues that no proof existed to show he had an intent to deprive the officers of their cruiser. Notably, this issue rests on what exactly intent to deprive means.

To start, KRS 514.010(1) provides four definitions of deprive : 1) to withhold property of another permanently;4 2) to withhold property for so extended a period as to appropriate a major portion of its economic value;5 3) to withhold property with intent to restore it only upon payment of reward or other compensation;6 or 4) to dispose of the property so as to make it unlikely that the owner will recover it7 . We must determine the applicability of each of these definitions to the facts of this case to determine the correct result in this case. As a matter of clarification, per the statutory language, we are determining whether Hall had the intent to deprive, not simply whether Hall actually deprived the police of the cruiser.

We shall begin by addressing intent to deprive under the third definition of deprive , because it clearly does not apply in this case. No evidence exists that Hall intended to withhold the cruiser from the police until he received some sort of payment of reward or other compensation. The same is true of intent to deprive under the second definition of deprive : No evidence exists that Hall intended to withhold property for so extended a period as to *13appropriate a major portion of its economic value.

Intent to deprive under the fourth definition of deprive warrants some discussion.

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Bluebook (online)
551 S.W.3d 7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-commonwealth-moctapp-2018.