State v. Burke

462 S.W.2d 701, 43 A.L.R. 3d 1137, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 1218
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 11, 1971
Docket55089
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 462 S.W.2d 701 (State v. Burke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Burke, 462 S.W.2d 701, 43 A.L.R. 3d 1137, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 1218 (Mo. 1971).

Opinion

FINCH, Judge.

This case, written on reassignment, involves an appeal from a conviction of burglary in the second degree for which defendant was sentenced to two years imprisonment. We affirm.

The first point raised is that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction and that defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal should have been sustained. We overrule this contention. The evidence disclosed that St. Joseph police officers received word at about 3:00 a.m. on September 23, 1967, that a burglary was in progress at the Summers Oldsmobile Company building, about seven blocks away. When the officers arrived they drove into an alley on the east side of the building. A window on the lower floor was found slightly ajar. A canine corps officer turned his dog loose at the window, from which point it went a short distance along the passageway between the building and a shed or garage which was approximately three feet from the building itself. The dog stopped at the side of the garage and started growling and trying to climb the wall. The officer looked up and observed a man’s foot extending from the edge of the roof. The officer called to the man to come down but at first he did not move. However, when the officer drew his gun and shined a light on the man (defendant herein) he did come down off of the building. He was immediately taken into custody, given necessary warnings and searched. In that search the officers found a small metal pry bar and a pair of white cloth gloves in the defendant’s pocket.

The owner of the automobile company testified that to the best of his knowledge the windows and doors of the building had been closed when he left the night before. When the officers checked the partially opened window they found pry marks on the metal part of the window adjacent to the lock. The lock itself was not broken but one of the officers testified that he would say it had been sprung. Inside there was a footprint on the metal cabinet below the window.

Inside the building a door at the bottom of some steps leading from the basement to the upper floor had been closed and locked that night with a padlock, but someone had opened that door by removing the pins from the door hinges and then taking the door off its hinges and placing it on its side.

The building was searched but no other person was found. A search for fingerprints was made but none were obtained, although some sets of glove prints were observed on the vending machines. There apparently was no attempt to identify the footprint on the metal cabinet beneath the window.

The defendant argues that there was no evidence that the defendant had been in the burglarized building, that there was no evidence that the gloves or iron bar were used in connection with the burglary, that property allegedly taken was not found on the person of the defendant, and that the mere presence of defendant at or near the scene was not sufficient, without more, to convict him of burglary. He cites cases such as State v. Allen, Mo., 420 S. W.2d 330, for the proposition that mere presence of the accused at the scene of the crime and an opportunity to have committed the offense is not sufficient circumstantial evidence to justify conviction. That is the rule, but in this case (as in Allen) there was more than mere presence and an opportunity to have committed the burglary. While there was no direct evidence that defendant had been in the building, the circumstantial evidence was sufficient to justify the jury in inferring that he had been.

The evidence as summarized above shows that within minutes after the police received word that the burglary was in *703 progress they found defendant alone a few feet from the open window. The action of the police dog indicated that defendant had gone from the open window to the roof of the garage where he was found hiding. The evidence shows conduct on defendant’s part in trying to hide and escape detection. Pry marks were found on the window and vending machines on both floors had been pried open. Defendant, when arrested, had a small pry bar in his pocket. No fingerprints were found but glove prints were found on the vending machines and the defendant had cotton gloves in his pocket when arrested. This evidence was ample to justify the jury in finding defendant guilty of burglary.

It is true, as defendant points out, that whereas the evidence indicates that money from the machines would have been in the form of coins, particularly quarters and nickels, the defendant, when arrested, had in his possession $11.20, of which $10.-00 was in dollar bills. However,, the jury acquitted the defendant of burglarious stealing and it was not necessary to a conviction of burglary that defendant have in his possession any stolen money or- other items. The other evidence was sufficient to sustain a conviction of burglary.

Defendant’s second complaint is that the circumstantial evidence instruction given by the court was prejudicially erroneous. The instruction given was as follows:

“INSTRUCTION NO. 5
“You are further instructed that evidence is of two kinds, direct and circumstantial. Evidence is direct where a witness testified directly of his own knowledge of the main fact or facts to be proven. Circumstantial evidence is the proof of facts and circumstances in a given case from which the jury may infer other and connected facts which usually and reasonably follow, according to the common experience of mankind.
“Crime may be proven by circumstantial evidence as well as by direct testimony, but to warrant the conviction of the defendant upon circumstantial evidence alone, it is not sufficient that the facts proven coincide with, account for, or even render probable the hypothesis sought to be established, but they must exclude every other hypothesis but the one sought to be established, namely the guilt of the defendant; and unless the facts and circumstances proven are consistent with each other, and with the guilt of the defendant, and inconsistent with and unexplainable upon any other reasonable theory than that of the guilt of the defendant, under the law you would not be justified in convicting him upon such evidence alone.”

It is defendant’s position that Instruction No. 5 was deficient in that the instruction did not advise the jury that the facts and circumstances proven must be consistent with each other and point so clearly and satisfactorily to defendant’s guilt that every reasonable hypothesis of his innocence is excluded. In making this contention, defendant cites and quotes from the case of State v. Murphy, 356 Mo. 110, 201 S.W.2d 280, 282, wherein the court in passing on the sufficiency of the evidence said this: “Inasmuch as the evidence of defendant’s agency in the theft is entirely circumstantial the facts and circumstances relied upon by the state to establish guilt must not only be consistent with each other and with the hypothesis of defendant’s guilt, but they must also be inconsistent and irreconcilable with his innocence, and must point so clearly and satisfactorily to guilt as to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence.”

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Bluebook (online)
462 S.W.2d 701, 43 A.L.R. 3d 1137, 1971 Mo. LEXIS 1218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-burke-mo-1971.