State v. Haulcomb

195 S.E.2d 601, 260 S.C. 260, 1973 S.C. LEXIS 345
CourtSupreme Court of South Carolina
DecidedMarch 20, 1973
Docket19589
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 195 S.E.2d 601 (State v. Haulcomb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Haulcomb, 195 S.E.2d 601, 260 S.C. 260, 1973 S.C. LEXIS 345 (S.C. 1973).

Opinions

Littlejohn, Justice:

The defendants, Ronald Stephen Haulcomb and Kenneth Pinneau, were tried by jury in July, 1971, in the Court of [263]*263General Sessions oí Sumter County on indictments charging them with safecracking and housebreaking. In an opening statement to the jury, defendants admitted the allegations of the indictments and thereafter relied solely on the defense of entrapment.

The jury wrote a verdict of guilty as to, each charge and both defendants were sentenced. Thereafter, a timely appeal was filed with this Court. Subsequently, defendants moved before this Court to suspend the appeal and asked this Court to grant leave to them to moye before the trial judge for an order directing a new trial upon the grounds of after-discovered evidence.

We heard arguments upon this motion and handed down an o,rder granting the motion. The appeal was argued and we deferred a ruling on the appeal on its merits pending the lower court’s ruling on the motion for a new trial.

The motion for a new trial was denied by the trial judge; defendants took exceptions and filed a timely appeal.

In this opinion we will consider both the appeal from the trial on its merits and the appeal from the denial of a new trial.

In the appeal from the jury verdict, the defendants raise several questions. They challenge: (1) the trial judge’s charge to the jury; (2) the constitutionality of South Carolina Code of Laws § 16-337 (1962, supp. 1972) coyering safecracking; (3) the failure of the state to produce the alleged informer-participant as a witness; (4) the trial judge’s refusal to admit evidence of defendants’ offer to take a polygraph test.

Prior to a consideration of the questions raised, a brief summary of the facts leading up to the arrest is in order.

J. P. Strom, Chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), testified without objection as follows: In early February, 1971, he was contacted by an individual who explained that a second individual, named Ed[264]*264ward “Red” Co,ran (a known safecracker), had been approached by certain persons who were planning a safecracking. The safecracking was to take place in South Carolina and Coran’s assistance had been sought. Strom arranged for an interview with Coran and paid his air fare from Florida to Columbia. During their meeting (in mid-February), Coran verified that he had been approached concerning the safecracking. He stated that he did not know where it was to occur but that he would contact Strom immediately upon getting this information. Strom paid Coran $200 and promised to pay him an additional $200 after an arrest was made.

After Coran contacted Strom again, a stake-out was set up at a store in Oswego, (near Sumter) South Carolina, during the evening of March 7, 1971. At approximately 9 p. m. Coran, accompanied by the defendants, entered the store through a rear door. The dial from a safe, which was located in the store, was knocked off. Coran then managed to leave the store undetected by most of the 20 to 25 law enforcement officers who then closed in on the premises and arrested both Flaulcomb and Pinneau.

Coran was not present at the trial, although Strom testified that he could have arranged for his presence.

The defendant Pinneau testified that he knew nothing of the safecracking until the middle of February, when he was approached by Coran. Earlier, he said, Co,ran’s wife had told him that Coran had been to South Carolina.

The defendant Haulcomb testified that he knew nothing of the safecracking until March 3, 1971, when he was approached by Coran and asked to, go along as a lookout. Haul-comb further testified that he did not consent to go until the day before the incident occurred, and then only after much prompting fro,m Coran.

Each defendant testified that he had never heard of or been to Sumter prior to the incident. Both testified that Co-ran personally broke into the sto,re and knocked off the dial of the safe.

[265]*265The defendants offered testimony, in the absence of the jury, that they were present at SLED headquarters on April 15, 1971, and offered to take a lie detector test; that they were willing at that time tq answer any questions of Chief Strom or any SLED agent, particularly as to their first knowledge of the possibility of committing an offense in South Carolina, and that their offer to take the test was refused. The remainder of the evidence concerns more details of the events leading up to the arrest.

Inasmuch as the defendants admitted that they committed the acts alleged by the State, the real issue for determination was: Did the defendants prove by the greater weight of the evidence that they were entrapped ? The verdict hinged upon this issue. Entrapment is recognized as a valid defense in this State. State v. Jacobs, 238 S. C. 234, 119 S. E. (2d) 735 (1961). It is an affirmative defense which necessarily assumes that the acts charged were committed.

The defendants moved at the beginning of the trial to quash the indictment fo,r “safecracking” on the ground that the statute quoted below is unconstitutionally vague, and on the ground that the punishment permitted is cruel and unusual as prohibited by the South Carolina and the United States Constitutions. The motioq was overruled; by proper exceptions the defendants now ask this Court to reverse the trial judge and hold the safecracking statute invalid.

The statute, § 16-337 of the 1962 Code reads as follows:

“Safecracking. — Any persoq convicted of using explosives, tools or any other implement in or about a safe used for keeping money o,r other valuables with intent to commit larceny or any other crime shall be guilty of a felony and be sentenced to the Penitentiary during the term of his life; provided, that if the jury recommended the defendant to the mercy of the co.urt, a sentence of not less than ten years’ imprisonment may be imposed, in the discretion of the court.”

[266]*266This statute was enacted in 1904 by the General Assembly. It was entitled. “An Act to, Provide Punishment for Safe-Crackers.” In 1955, it was amended so as to add, after the word explosives, “tools or any other implement.” Apparently, its constitutionality on the grounds now submitted to this Court has never been challenged before.

We recognize that crimes must be defined with definiteness such that men of common intelligence would not guess at its meaning. Town of Honea Path v. Flynn, 255 S. C. 32, 176 S. E. (2d) 564 (1970); State v. DeAngelis, 257 S. C. 44, 183 S. E. (2d) 906 (1971).

The contention that the statute is not sufficiently definite to place a person of commop intelligence on notice as to what is prohibited is clearly without merit. The offense is designated in bold-faced letters— “SAFECRACKING.”

We are also of the opinion that the statute is not unconstitutional by reason of the fact that life imprisonment is directed upon conviction if the jury does not recopimend mercy, and not less than ten years’ imprisonment is directed when the jury does recommend mercy. There is no contention that the sentence imposed op these defendants was cruel and unusual. Indeed, the record does not even reflect what sentence the judge in his discretion imposed.

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State v. Haulcomb
195 S.E.2d 601 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
195 S.E.2d 601, 260 S.C. 260, 1973 S.C. LEXIS 345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-haulcomb-sc-1973.