State v. Hannah

286 S.E.2d 363, 55 N.C. App. 583, 1982 N.C. App. LEXIS 2247
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedFebruary 2, 1982
DocketNo. 8127SC800
StatusPublished

This text of 286 S.E.2d 363 (State v. Hannah) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Hannah, 286 S.E.2d 363, 55 N.C. App. 583, 1982 N.C. App. LEXIS 2247 (N.C. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

HILL, Judge.

Defendant and Albert James Weldon came to Jerry Howie’s house on North Central Avenue in Belmont looking for Howie’s wife’s nephew, Jimmy West. When they arrived, no one was at home. Nevertheless, defendant and Weldon went inside. They went upstairs, looked around, and found two shotguns. Defendant and Weldon took both guns across the street to Sacred Heart College where they hid them in the woods. Later, defendant and Weldon sold the guns for one hundred dollars, which they divided [584]*584“fifty-fifty.” Weldon testified that he and defendant “had drunk about a gallon of vodka the night before.” Weldon was still drunk when he entered Howie’s house. Defendant presented no evidence.

Defendant’s sole argument is that the trial judge erred in failing to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of misdemeanor breaking or entering. Specifically, defendant contends that there is no evidence that he broke into or entered Howie’s house with the intent to commit a felony therein to support his conviction of felonious breaking or entering. We do not agree.

The necessity for instructing the jury as to an included crime of lesser degree than that charged arises when and only when there is evidence from which the jury could find that such included crime of lesser degree was committed. The presence of such evidence is the determinative factor.

State v. Hicks, 241 N.C. 156, 159, 84 S.E. 2d 545, 547 (1954) (emphasis original). “However, it is not necessary to submit the lesser included offense if the evidence discloses no conflicting evidence relating to the essential elements of the greater crime.” State v. Brown, 300 N.C. 41, 50, 265 S.E. 2d 191, 197 (1980).

Of course, in order to convict defendant as charged, the jury must find beyond a reasonable doubt that at the time defendant entered the building, he had the intent to perform the wrongdoing charged in the indictment. State v. Faircloth, 297 N.C. 388, 255 S.E. 2d 366 (1979); State v. Jones, 264 N.C. 134, 141 S.E. 2d 27 (1965). “The intent with which an accused broke and entered may be found by the jury from evidence as to what he did within the house.” State v. Tippett, 270 N.C. 588, 594, 155 S.E. 2d 269, 274 (1967).

In the case sub judice, defendant entered Howie’s house after discovering that no one was there. While inside the house, he and Weldon looked around, found, and took two shotguns. Thereafter, they hid the guns, sold them, and split the profit. This evidence is sufficient from which the jury reasonably could infer that defendant intended to commit a felony, larceny, at the time he entered Howie’s house. There being no conflict in the evidence of the greater offense, felonious breaking or entering, the trial judge did not err in failing to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense, misdemeanor breaking or entering.

[585]*585No error.

Judge HEDRICK concurs. Judge BECTON dissents.

Judge BECTON

dissenting.

Without applying the relevant principles of law to the facts in this case, the majority concludes that there is “no conflict in the evidence of . . . felonious breaking or entering, [and further concludes that] the trial judge did not err in failing to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense, misdemeanor breaking or entering,” ante, p. 584. I disagree, and I respectfully dissent.

The majority correctly states the applicable law as follows:

The necessity for instructing the jury as to an included crime of lesser degree than that charged arises when and only when there is evidence from which the jury could find that such included crime of lesser degree was committed. The presence of such evidence is the determinative factor. State v. Hicks, 241 N.C. 156, 159, 84 S.E. 2d 545, 547 (1954) (emphasis in original).

Ante, p. 584. The majority then seeks to show that there was sufficient evidence “from which the jury reasonably could infer that defendant intended to commit a felony, larceny, at the time he entered Howie’s house,” ante, p. 584. With this there is no quarrel. The crucial and dispositive analysis, however, should answer the following question: Was there any evidence that the breaking or entering was done without the intent to commit a felony?

When the breaking or entering is without the intent to commit a felony, the defendant is guilty of a misdemeanor. State v. Dozier, 19 N.C. App. 740, 200 S.E. 2d 348 (1973), cert. denied 284 N.C. 618, 201 S.E. 2d 690 (1974). In order to convict a defendant of felonious breaking or entering, the jury must find that at the time he entered the building he had the intent to commit larceny. As our Supreme Court said in State v. Tippett, 270 N.C. 588, 594, 155 S.E. 2d 269, 274 (1967):

The intent with which an accused broke and entered may be found by the jury from evidence as to what he did within the [586]*586house. [Citation omitted.] However, the fact that a felony was actually committed after the house was entered is not necessarily proof of the intent requisite for [felonious breaking or entering]. It is only evidence from which such intent at the time of the breaking and entering may be found. [Emphasis added.]

In this case the State produced only one witness connecting the defendant to the crime charged. That was Albert James Weldon, an alleged accomplice to the break-in. Weldon testified that he and the defendant went to the Howie house looking for Jimmy West, a friend of theirs. West is a nephew of Mrs. Howie. Weldon continued: “We went to the back door of Mr. Howie’s house and knocked on the door. The back door is the door we always use when I go over there. That’s the one everybody uses.” When no one answered, Weldon testified that “the wild idea came up to go inside and look around.” (Weldon’s prior custodial statement, admitted for corroboration, quoted the defendant as saying “let’s go in and take a look.”) Weldon and the defendant broke into and entered the house and, after discovering two shotguns, decided to take them.

From defendant’s action once inside the house, the jury can legitimately infer that he entered the house with the intent to commit larceny. That, however, is not the only legitimate inference that can be drawn from the evidence. There is also evidence from which the jury might infer that the defendant did not enter the house with the intent to commit a felony. The un-contradicted evidence is that defendant went to the house because he thought a friend of his, Jimmy West, might be at his aunt’s house, and not to steal. Again, “[a] breaking and an entry without the intent to commit a felony in the building is not converted into a burglary [or felonious breaking or entering] by the subsequent commission therein of a felony subsequently conceived.” 270 N.C. at 594, 155 S.E. 2d at 274.

The jury may accept or reject Weldon’s or the defendant’s aimless reason of “looking around” as a basis for the breaking or entering. It is because a jury is not required to accept all of the testimony and may believe any part or none of the testimony that I believe the lesser offense should have been submitted. Indeed, this Court upheld the submission of a lesser offense instruction on [587]

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Related

State v. Dozier
200 S.E.2d 348 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1973)
State v. Brown
265 S.E.2d 191 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1980)
State v. Jones
141 S.E.2d 27 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1965)
State v. Banks
245 S.E.2d 743 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1978)
State v. Faircloth
255 S.E.2d 366 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1979)
State v. Marshall Norman Hicks
84 S.E.2d 545 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1954)
State v. Drumgold
254 S.E.2d 531 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1979)
State v. Tippett
155 S.E.2d 269 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1967)
State v. Palmer
239 S.E.2d 406 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1977)
State v. . Petry
36 S.E.2d 653 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1946)

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Bluebook (online)
286 S.E.2d 363, 55 N.C. App. 583, 1982 N.C. App. LEXIS 2247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hannah-ncctapp-1982.