McClellan v. State

484 So. 2d 1150
Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama·Decided November 12, 1985·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

484 So.2d 1150 (1985)

Charles James McCLELLAN
v.
STATE.

6 Div. 489.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama.

November 12, 1985.
Rehearing Denied January 28, 1986.
Certiorari Denied March 28, 1986.

*1151 Kenneth J. Gomany of Gomany & Cahill, Birmingham, for appellant.

Charles A. Graddick, Atty. Gen., and Gerrilyn V. Grant, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Alabama Supreme Court 85-549.

LEIGH M. CLARK, Retired Circuit Judge.

Charles James McClellan was prosecuted on a two-count indictment. The first count charged him with the possession of burglar's tools, in violation of Alabama Criminal Code, § 13A-7-8, which provides as follows:

"(a) A person commits the crime of possession of burglar's tools if he:
"(1) possesses any explosives, tools, instrument or other article adapted, designed or commonly used for committing or facilitating the commission of an offense involving forcible entry in the premises or theft by a physical taking, and
"(2) intends to use the thing possessed in the commission of an offense of the nature described in sub-division (a)(1) of this section."

The second count of the indictment charged defendant with burglary in the third degree, in violation of § 13A-7-7 of the Code, which provides:

"A person commits the crime of burglary in the third degree if he knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in a building with the intent to commit a crime therein."

The jury returned a verdict finding defendant guilty under the first count of the indictment and returned a verdict finding him not guilty under the second count of the indictment.

In the brief of counsel for appellant, only two issues are presented. As to one of the issues, the following is a concluding argument in the brief of appellant's counsel:

"Here, the verdicts by the jury in the instant case are inconsistent. `Intent', in this statute requires a guilty mind. The jury by acquitting the defendant of burglary which allegedly arose all out of the same fact situation negated any `intent' or guilty mind on the part of the defendant to possess burglary tools in the intent to use the thing(s) possessed in the commission of an offense of forcible entry or theft by physical taking as alleged in the indictment. Defendant herein argues that his conviction is due to be reversed and rendered because by operation of law, the acquittal of the thing for *1152 which he was charged with committing while possessing the tools introduced into evidence at his trial, rendered any criminal intent on his part absent."

The transcript of the proceedings in the trial court discloses that about 10:00 o'clock, the night of October 8, 1983, a burglary alarm at the Spaulding Elementary School in Birmingham was activated, which alerted a security officer of the Birmingham Board of Education, who promptly called the Birmingham Police Department and who arrived at the school soon after the police officers had arrived. They found that a plastic pane "had been knocked out" of the window at the door of one of the buildings; they also observed a flashlight and screwdriver on the floor on the inside of the building, a few moments after they had seen defendant on the outside of the building near the window holding a flashlight "above his head." Approximately two feet from the defendant at the time he was seen by some of the officers "reaching through the window," there was a bag of tools on the outside of the building.

No contention is made in brief of counsel for appellant that defendant did not have burglary tools in his possession on the occasion under consideration.

Since the landmark case of Dunn v. United States, 284 U.S. 390, 52 S.Ct. 189, 76 L.Ed. 356 (1932), in a brief opinion by Justice Holmes and a lengthy dissent by Justice Butler, the question of whether inconsistency between a verdict finding defendant guilty under one count of an indictment and a verdict finding him not guilty under another count of the indictment was sufficient to require the annulment of the verdict and that the particular defendant be adjudged not guilty as to each of the counts, there has been a conflict of view as expressed in a multitude of cases on the subject, as shown throughout the years in West's Digest, Criminal Law, Key No. 878(4). The larger number of the cases cited reach an opposite conclusion from that of appellant's attorney in the instant case. The only case from the appellate courts of Alabama on the particular subject seems to be Oden v. State, 41 Ala.App. 212, 127 So.2d 380 (1961), which is not decisive of the issue now presented by appellant. Neither party on this appeal has presented a case in point on the subject. Perhaps the remarkable lack of uniformity in the opinions throughout the United States on the subject has been influenced by a difference of view among the authors of the opinions in such cases as to what was meant by the expression "consistency between a verdict finding defendant guilty under one count and a verdict finding him not guilty under another count of the same indictment." We think that we should follow that which was said by Justice Holmes in Dunn v. United States, supra:

"... As was said in Steckler v. United States (C.C.A.2d) (7 F.2d) 59, 60, `The most that can be said in such cases is that the verdict shows that either in the acquittal or the conviction the jury did not speak their real conclusions, but that does not show that they were not convinced of the defendant's guilt. We interpret the acquittal as no more than their assumption of a power which they had no right to exercise, but to which they were disposed through lenity.'
"Compare Horning v. District of Columbia, 254 U.S. 135, 65 L.Ed. 185, 41 S.Ct. 53.
"That the verdict may have been the result of compromise, or of a mistake on the part of the jury, is possible but verdicts cannot be upset by speculation or inquiry into such matters."

It is to be noted also that, as defendant did not testify and the only witness called to the stand by defendant was not an eyewitness as to what occurred at the scene of the alleged crimes, the jury could have been satisfied by the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant was in possession of burglary tools with the intent to use them "in the commission of an offense involving forceful entry into the premises or theft by physical taking" as required by § 13A-7-8 but was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt by the *1153 evidence that defendant actually did all that witnesses for the State testified they saw him do prior to the time they arrived in his immediate presence. At any rate, we are unable to conclude that the two verdicts are so irreconcilably inconsistent with, or repugnant to, each other as to justify a reversal of the judgment of conviction of the crime charged by the first count of the indictment.

By the only other issue presented by brief of counsel for appellant, he contends that "there was no showing in the transcript of record that defendant was adjudged an habitual offender" and, therefore, the eighteen year sentence "was incorrectly given to defendant." In the absence of the application of the Habitual Felony Offender Act, the limit of the statutory punishment provided for the Class C felony involved is ten years.

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McClellan v. State, 484 So. 2d 1150 (Ala. Ct. App. 1985).

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