State v. Alben

911 P.2d 1239, 139 Or. App. 236, 1996 Ore. App. LEXIS 205
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 21, 1996
DocketC940697CR; CA A86512
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 911 P.2d 1239 (State v. Alben) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Alben, 911 P.2d 1239, 139 Or. App. 236, 1996 Ore. App. LEXIS 205 (Or. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

*238 EDMONDS, J.

Defendant was convicted of robbery in the first degree, ORS 164.415, aggravated theft in the first degree, ORS 164.057, and unlawful use of weapon, ORS 166.220. He appeals only from the conviction for robbery in the first degree, and argues that the trial court’s instructions to the jury for that offense constituted in substance an amendment to the indictment, and therefore violated Article VII (Amended), section 5, of the Oregon Constitution. We reverse the conviction for robbery in the first degree.

On April 16, 1994, defendant and Max Muller entered a store and asked to speak to the person in charge. A store employee directed them to Randy Crouse. Muller told Crouse he wished to discuss privately a complaint that he and defendant had about a store employee, and Crouse directed them to the store office. Once inside, Muller told Crouse that defendant had a gun and that Crouse should lie on the floor with his hands behind his back and his eyes closed. Crouse testified that he caught the glimpse of a gun stuck in defendant’s pants and that, from the size of the gun’s magazine, he believed that it was a nine millimeter handgun. He also testified that he saw a clip in the gun’s magazine. Muller was unable to open the safe, so he demanded that Crouse open it for him. Crouse did as he was told, and then was ordered to lie back down on the floor. He testified that during the time that he was lying on the floor, defendant pressed something against his head, which Crouse assumed was the gun that he had seen. Defendant and Muller then took all the money out of the safe and Muller asked Crouse before leaving, “[D]o you know how far a .22 will shoot?”

Defendant was arrested for the robbery two days later. Later that same day, police officers searched defendant’s residence pursuant to a search warrant and found approximately $7,000 in cash and two BB pistols. However, the officers did not find any handguns, nor did they find any bullets for handguns. At trial, the manager of the residence testified that, sometime after the officers left, she found a box of bullets while packing defendant’s belongings. One of the officers testified that the manager’s description of the bullets’ *239 appearance was consistent with the appearance of a nine millimeter bullet.

A grand jury indicted defendant. The indictment said, in part:

“[Defendant is] accused by the Grand Jury of Washington County by this indictment of the crime(s) of Robbery in the First Degree with a Firearm (Class A Felony) in Count 1, Aggravated Theft in the First Degree (Class B Felony) in Count 2, and Unlawful Use of a Weapon (Class C Felony) in Count 3, committed as follows:
“That [defendant] on or about April 16, 1994, in Washington County, Oregon, did unlawfully and knowingly threaten the immediate use of physical force upon Randy Crouse, and was armed with a deadly weapon, to-wit: a firearm, while in the course of committing theft of property, to-wit: money, with the intent of preventing and overcoming resistance to said defendant’s taking and retention immediately after the taking of the said property,
“The State further alleges that during the course of the above-described offense the defendant used a firearm.” (Emphasis supplied.)

During its opening statement at trial, the state asserted that the evidence would show that defendant and Muller used a nine millimeter handgun in the robbery. The state proceeded with that theory throughout its case-in-chief. The state elicited testimony from Crouse and the police officer who searched defendant’s apartment. When the prosecutor questioned Crouse regarding the BB pistols, Crouse testified that neither pistol was the weapon used in the robbery and identified various characteristics of the BB pistols that were inconsistent with the gun that he had seen during the robbery.

In the defense’s case, defendant testified, admitting that he participated in the robbery. He said that he was carrying a BB pistol, not a handgun, and that he had never removed the pistol from his pants, and had never placed it against Crouse’s temple. The trial court instructed the jury as follows:

“In this case to establish the crime of robbery in the first degree the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following six elements.
*240 «* He * * *
“Sixth, that either [defendant] or Mr. Muller was armed with a deadly weapon or used a dangerous weapon or attempted to use a dangerous weapon.
% % * *
“The term ‘dangerous weapon’ means any instrument, article or substance which under the circumstances in which it is used, attempted to be used or threatened to be used, is readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury.
“The term ‘deadly weapon’ means any instrument, article or substance specifically designed for and presently capable of causing death or serious physical injury.” (Emphasis supplied.) 1

In its closing statement, the state made it clear that its theory of the case was that defendant had used a “deadly weapon,” a nine millimeter handgun. However, as an alternate theory, it also asserted that if defendant had carried a BB pistol, he was still guilty of robbery in the first degree, because the BB pistol was a “dangerous weapon” under the circumstances in which he used it. The jury found defendant guilty of all three offenses and, in answer to a special interrogatory, found that defendant did not use or threaten the use of a firearm during the offenses. Thus, the jury could only have found defendant guilty of first-degree robbeiy based on the possession and use of the BB pistol.

Defendant assigns error to the court’s instruction. He argues that the trial court’s instruction amended the indictment in substance, and that under the holding in State v. Wimber, 315 Or 103, 843 P2d 424 (1992), such an amendment is unauthorized under Article VII (Amended), section 5, 2 of the Oregon Constitution. The state counters that the *241 issue is controlled by our holding in State v. Hanson / Hughes, 14 Or App 586, 513 P2d 1202, rev den (1973). The state says that the concept of a “dangerous weapon” is necessarily included in the definition of a “deadly weapon” and that, therefore, a court may give an alternative instruction even though the charging instrument does not allege a “dangerous weapon.”

In Wimber, the court considered whether a trial court’s instruction changing the time period from that specified in the indictment was an amendment in form or substance.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
911 P.2d 1239, 139 Or. App. 236, 1996 Ore. App. LEXIS 205, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-alben-orctapp-1996.