State v. Barker

14 P.3d 863
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedDecember 26, 2000
Docket18773-0-III
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 14 P.3d 863 (State v. Barker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Barker, 14 P.3d 863 (Wash. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

14 P.3d 863 (2000)
103 Wash.App. 893

STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Anton E. BARKER, Appellant.

No. 18773-0-III.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 3, Panel Three.

December 26, 2000.

*865 Hugh M. Spall, Jr., Ellensburg, for Appellant.

Lauri M. Boyd, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Yakima, for Respondent.

*864 SWEENEY, J.

This is a robbery case. "A person commits robbery when he unlawfully takes personal property from the person of another or in his presence against his will by the use or threatened use of immediate force, violence, or fear of injury...." RCW 9A.56.190. "A person is guilty of robbery in the second degree if he commits robbery." RCW 9A.56.210(1). "A person is guilty of robbery in the first degree if in the commission of a robbery ... he ... [d]isplays what appears to be a firearm or other deadly weapon." RCW 9A.56.200(1)(b). Anton Barker walked into the Yakima Payless Shoe Store and told the clerk he had a gun but never displayed one. He ordered her to give him cash. When she turned away, he pressed something hard into her back which she thought might be a gun. Report of Proceedings (RP) at 40. The trial judge instructed the jury on the lesser degree crime of second degree robbery. The jury convicted Mr. Barker of second degree robbery.

The question before us is whether a rational trier of fact could have found that Mr. Barker was not armed with a deadly weapon at the time of this robbery. See State v. Longworth, 52 Wash.App. 453, 466, 761 P.2d 67 (1988). And while the jury certainly could have found that he was armed with a deadly weapon and thereby found him guilty of first degree robbery,[1] it is just as clear that it could have found that he was not armed with a deadly weapon. Mr. Barker's remaining assignments of error are all subject to the abuse of discretion standard of review. And we find no abuse of discretion. We affirm the conviction.

FACTS

Mr. Barker robbed the Payless Shoe Store on April 1, 1999. He told the store clerk, Sheniece Brown, that he had a gun and would use it. She described him as wearing a baseball cap, a baggy gray sweatshirt, and baggy pale green jeans. He had a handkerchief over his nose and mouth and red marks on the back of his hands and side of his face. She tried to open the register but failed. Mr. Barker threatened to shoot her if she did not hurry up. He shoved something hard into her back. She thought it might have been a gun. RP at 40. She eventually opened the register. Mr. Barker took money from the register and a safe and fled.

Ms. Brown called police. They investigated. Security cameras in the store showed a man with dark hair in the area of the cash register. Ms. Brown described a Hispanic man with thick short black hair. She described him as in his mid-twenties with no facial hair. Her description varied in some details from investigator to investigator.

Mr. Barker represented himself during his first trial; it ended in a hung jury. The court declared a mistrial. The State proceeded with a second trial. Ms. Brown identified Mr. Barker as the culprit during the *866 second trial. The trial judge refused to admit the expert opinions of Dr. Geoffrey Loftus on eyewitness testimony, that is, the unreliability of eyewitness testimony.

Another store employee testified that Mr. Barker had been in the store on several occasions prior to the day of the robbery but never bought anything. And he was always accompanied by another woman, Naomi Rogers. The court instructed the jury to disregard testimony of Naomi Rogers' presence in the store before the robbery. It also instructed the jury that Mr. Barker's failure to testify could not be considered. Despite this admonition, the foreperson testified by affidavit after the trial that the jury had considered Ms. Rogers' presence in the store prior to the robbery. The State also referred to Mr. Barker coming to the store with his girl friend during closing argument.

Over Mr. Barker's objection, the court instructed the jury on second degree robbery, as a lesser degree offense to first degree robbery. The jury acquitted Mr. Barker of first degree robbery but found him guilty of second degree robbery. The trial court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole as a persistent offender, based on earlier convictions.

ANALYSIS

SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT SECOND DEGREE ROBBERY

Mr. Barker contends that the court erred by instructing the jury on second degree robbery because there was simply no evidence on which the jury could find that he was not armed with a deadly weapon at the time of the robbery.

The question here is whether the State has met its threshold burden of producing sufficient evidence to support an instruction on second degree robbery. State v. Fernandez-Medina, 141 Wash.2d 448, 455-56, 6 P.3d 1150 (2000). The instruction was properly given if there is sufficient evidence upon which a rational jury could base a conviction for second degree robbery. Id. at 456, 6 P.3d 1150.

"A person commits robbery when he unlawfully takes personal property from the person of another or in his presence against his will by the use or threatened use of immediate force, violence, or fear of injury to that person or his property or the person or property of anyone." RCW 9A.56.190. "A person is guilty of robbery in the second degree if he commits robbery." RCW 9A.56.210(1). But a person is guilty of first degree robbery if the crime is committed while he "[i]s armed with a deadly weapon" or if he "[d]isplays what appears to be a firearm or other deadly weapon[.]" RCW 9A.56.200(1)(a), (b).

Mr. Barker's contention, reduced to its essence, is that the only affirmative evidence is that he displayed what appeared to be a firearm. He was therefore guilty of first degree robbery—or nothing.

But Raul Abundiz testified that he was a friend of Mr. Barker's. Mr. Barker confessed he had committed the robbery. And Mr. Barker said he was not armed at the time of the robbery. Mr. Barker told him he just used his finger behind his shirt. Mr. Barker urges that this display when coupled with a threat of a deadly weapon only supports first degree robbery. State v. Henderson, 34 Wash.App. 865, 868-69, 664 P.2d 1291 (1983). His analysis is flawed.

While Mr. Barker's conduct—pointing a finger under a shirt—certainly supports the "display" element of first degree robbery, it does not follow, necessarily, that it only supports first degree robbery.

First, second degree robbery is an inferior degree of the crime of first degree robbery.

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Bluebook (online)
14 P.3d 863, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-barker-washctapp-2000.