State v. Knight

134 S.E.2d 101, 261 N.C. 17, 1964 N.C. LEXIS 412
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedJanuary 17, 1964
Docket651
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 134 S.E.2d 101 (State v. Knight) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court 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. Knight, 134 S.E.2d 101, 261 N.C. 17, 1964 N.C. LEXIS 412 (N.C. 1964).

Opinions

Parker, J.

Defendants assign ¡as error the denial of their motion to quash the indictment, made in apt time before pleading to the indictment. They ¡contend the indictment ¡should be quashed for the following reasons: One, it is improper to charge them jointly in one indictment; two, the three ¡counts of a non-iburglariously breaking and entry, ¡of larceny ¡and of receiving are conflicting ¡and broadside ¡and improperly joined; and three, that the first ©aunt charges them .with a non-iburglariously breaking and entry into “a certain storehouse, shop, warehouse, dwelling house and building occupied by one Dr. C. W. McAnally,” etc., which does not .give them any specific information ¡as to the type of structure they -are ¡charged with breaking into. This ¡assignment of ¡error is without merit.

“When ¡an ¡offense is one which may be ¡committed iby more than one person at the ¡same time, the .several persons engaged in its ¡commission may ¡be jointly charged.’.’ 42 C.J.S., Indictments and Informations, sec. 159, a, p. 1106.

In S. v. Mincher, 178 N.C. 698, 100 S.E. 339, the Ctourt said: “It has bean the uniform .practice in this State to jodan a count for larceny with one for receivingin ¡one indictment, ¡and this has been repeatedly [20]*20approved'.” It is /alteo proper to jpia ,-a court for; a noai-burgla-riously breaking -and entry with one for larceny at .the same time and with one for receiving at tflie same time in one indictment .in order to- meet the evidence which may possibly b.e -adduced .at the trial, and this has ibeem itihe midform .practice in this State; The three counts in the indictment correctly charge.in the usual form.-all the essential elements of the three offenses charged.

The first count charging -a non-buiglariously breaking and entry charges the breaking and entry into, certain buildings specified in G.S. 14-54, which creates- the offense. The first commit in the indictment charges .all the essential ingredients of the offense created by G.S. 14-54, and is good. Where .an indictment correctly charge® all the essential -elements of the offense, 'but' is not as definite .as the defendant may desire for his better -defense, hi® remedy -is by a motion for a bill oif'p-ariticu'lars, G.S. 15-143, and not. by a -motion to quash. S. v. Everhardt, 203 N.C. 610, 166 S.E. 738. When a bill -of particular® is furnished, it limits the -evidence to the transactions -or items therein stated. S. v. Williams, 211 N.C. 569, 190 S.E. 898.

The next question for decision is whether the State’s evidence survives each defendant’-s motion for judgment.-of nonsuit, -and suffices- to carry the case to the jury against both defendants or -any one of them on the first -two counts -in -the indictment -or either of them.

The State’s evidence, considered in the -light most favorable to it, presents these facts:

Dr. C. W. MoAnally, -a practicing dentist for 40 years, lives in his own home in the town of Madison. About 25 -or 30 yeans before 17 January 1963, he 'bought a metal safe, which he- has had -in his house s-inc-e then. On 17 January 1963 this safe -wais located in a oloiset -adj oiming his bedroom, and he- had in -it bonds, stocks, insurance papers and $75,000 in U. S. money, ail his property. This money consisted of hundred 'dollar bills, fifty dollar bills, twenty dollar bills, and a lesser number of five -dolla-r bills.,Some of that money was Series 1937; a large p-art of it was Series 1950. From time to- time he went through his securities and money in the. safe. He got some .stock -out the morning of 17 January 1963. This money, by rqas-on -o-f being kept for years in bis safe, had a. moldy, stinky odor.

He is a widower and lives alone. On 17 January 1963 his maid was off. Omrtihat day he went home for lunch about 11.:40 a.m. He kept the key to his front dona” in .a little wicker basket on the right-hand side when -one enters the front door. He até lunidh iff his- kitchen. He then went into- -his.'bedroom and salt down,in a chair. His house iis surrounded by a fence. Between his fence and the street there'is a tree. Looking [21]*21through his window in his, bedroom, he isaw standing on the sidewalk behind (this .tree a man he had never seen before. He watched him about ¡thirty minutes. During this time thiis man moved once or twice to a little fill .adjoining the sidewalk -and ¡was watching 'his house. About 12:5-5 p.m. he came out of his front door, lacked it, put his key in the wicker basket, and started to. 'his office. As he .came out of his house, this man, whom he identified at the .trial as defendant Gene Knight, looked -at him, and he looked at this man. Then Gene Knight walked across the street to another man standing on Tuttle’s Chevrolet lot, whom he had seen f.roan the window of his bedroom standing ¡there fifteen or twenty minutes. This man- standing on the Chevrolet lot appeared about the same .size and age as the defendant .Joe Watkins.

He returned home about 5:00 p.m. His front door -and the back door were unlocked. The wicker basket and the front .door key were lying in ■the hallway. He went to the closet adj o-ining hie bedroom, and his safe and all its contents were gone.

On 10 -or 12 January 1963 John J. McCaiskill, who lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, loaned his automobile, a 1956 .two-door, two-tone Mercury sedan, to. defendants. Between 9 and 10 p.m. on 18 January 1963 Joe Watkins, hie first wife Ruby Dunn and her sister Bobbie Dunn, and .a man whose name is not stated in the evidence, went to Salisbury, North Carolina, in Watkins’ automobile. There Bobbie Dunn got in a 1956 Mercury sed-an, ¡drove it back to Greensboro, and parked it where Watkins showed .her to park it, -which was in front of where John J. MoCaskd.il lives. The next morning MioCaiskill found hi,s ¡automobile parked in front of his home. It then had a dent in it from the left front -door to the ¡back panel. Later Watkins told ¡him 'he had had an accident with the automobile and gave him three hundred dollars in twenty dollar bills saying that -ought to take care of the damage. He ¡spent two hundred dollars of this money and turned one hundred ¡dollars of it -over to- the ¡State Bureau of Investigation. The State introduced .this hundred -dollars in evidence. Dr. Mc-Anally examined and smelled the five ¡twenty dollar bills and testified he could identify it.

A few days .before 17 January 1963 two men in Madison saw around 10 or 11 a.m. a .two-tone ¡automobile with a raashed-in ¡side around the left front dloor parked in the street near Dr. McAnially-is home. Two or three men were in it.

On the -afternoon -of 14 January 1963 the -defendants -and another man brought, -or had -pulled, a 1956 two-tone Mercury automobile into an automobile repair -shop in the town of Randleman. They stayed ■there about an hour while James Brown; the .’foreman, fixed the starter.

[22]*22Between 5 and 6 p.m. on 18 January 1963 Joe Watkins went to. the home of his sister Mns. Martha Baynes in Greensboro'. He gave his sister $320 in money and told her .to send money .orders with it. He also left a suitcase with her. When. Watkins left, his sister opened the suitcase and found in it a .pillowmse looped at the top- full of money. She immediately shut the suitcase and ©ailed her huisband and her father. They called police officers in Greensboro and turned over to them the suitcase and its contents. In the pillowiease wais $15,570 in paper money; it was straight or folded, had a musty emelll and stunk, and a lot of it was Series 1928-1934. The odor from the paper money was so bad Mr/s.

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Bluebook (online)
134 S.E.2d 101, 261 N.C. 17, 1964 N.C. LEXIS 412, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-knight-nc-1964.