State v. Medlin

357 S.E.2d 174, 86 N.C. App. 114, 1987 N.C. App. LEXIS 2691
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJune 16, 1987
Docket8614SC883
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 357 S.E.2d 174 (State v. Medlin) 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. Medlin, 357 S.E.2d 174, 86 N.C. App. 114, 1987 N.C. App. LEXIS 2691 (N.C. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Judge.

Defendant raises four of his original twelve Assignments of Error on appeal, as well as an additional Assignment of Error number thirteen upon our granting of defendant’s motion to amend the record. All other Assignments of Error not raised on appeal are deemed abandoned. Rule 28(b)(5), N.C. Rules App. P.

*121 Defendant’s fifth Assignment of Error raises the issue of whether he could be lawfully convicted of seven counts of conspiracy to break or enter on these facts. He argues that the evidence does not show seven separate and distinct transactions, but rather shows a single scheme or plan to commit an ongoing series of felonious breakings or enterings. Based on this argument, defendant asks this Court to vacate the three judgments for multiple conspiracies and remand for entry of a single judgment on one count of conspiracy. The State argues on appeal that the evidence is sufficient to sustain defendant’s convictions on seven counts of conspiracy to break or enter, and asks us to affirm these convictions and not to disturb the judgments.

The charges against defendant arise out of ten break-ins committed at several retail stores in Durham between 4 May 1985 and 24 August 1985. The evidence tends to show that all the break-ins occurred in essentially the same manner: Walter Cox, alone or with Leslie Williams, would break a store window and climb through the hole into the store. Once inside, Cox would telephone defendant. Defendant then drove his truck to the store to help carry away televisions and radios from the premises. For each of the break-ins, defendant was charged in separate indictments for conspiring with Cox (and in three indictments with Leslie Williams) to commit felonious breaking or entering. Defendant was eventually convicted of seven of these conspiracy charges, which were consolidated into three judgments of three years to be served consecutively.

The essence of the crime of conspiracy is the agreement to commit a substantive crime. State v. Rozier, 69 N.C. App. 38, 52, 316 S.E. 2d 893, 902, cert. denied, 312 N.C. 88, 321 S.E. 2d 907 (1984). No overt act is required in furtherance of the conspiracy. State v. Nicholson, 78 N.C. App. 398, 401, 337 S.E. 2d 654, 657 (1985). When the evidence shows a series of agreements or acts constituting a single conspiracy, a defendant cannot be prosecuted on multiple conspiracy indictments consistent with the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy. United States v. Kissel, 218 U.S. 601, 54 L.Ed. 1168, 31 S.Ct. 124 (1910).

*122 Although the offense of conspiracy is complete upon formation of the unlawful agreement, the offense continues until the conspiracy comes to fruition or is abandoned. State v. Conrad, 275 N.C. 342, 347, 168 S.E. 2d 39, 43 (1969). A single conspiracy may, and often does, consist of a series of different offenses. State v. Brewer, 258 N.C. 533, 540, 129 S.E. 2d 262, 267 (1963).

Although we have previously said that there is “no simple test for determining whether single or multiple conspiracies are involved” in a particular case, Rozier, supra, at 52, 316 S.E. 2d at 902, factors such as time intervals, participants, objectives, and number of meetings must be considered. Id.

Applying the four factors from Rozier, supra, to the facts in the case sub judice, we find ample evidence of a single conspiracy to feloniously break or enter the various Durham retail stores. All of the break-ins occurred within four months, and some' within ten days of each other. The participants —defendant, Cox, aná Williams in three instances —remained the same. The participants pursued the same objective throughout; to steal televisions and radios from local Durham retail stores. Meetings generally took place after break-ins to divide the spoils and discuss the next break-in. For example, on 1 June 1985, the night of the first break-in at Bargain Furniture, Cox testified that he and defendant discussed breaking into “another furniture store located across from the same one I had been in [Center Furniture] . . . This is Bargain Furniture I’m talking about now.” The gist of the meetings was to plan subsequent break-ins in furtherance of the original unlawful agreement made sometime before the first break-in. We are hard pressed to find facts more clearly telling of an ongoing series of acts in furtherance of a single conspiracy to break or enter. Rather than show ten separate conspiracies to break or enter on ten separate occasions as the State contends, these facts show one unlawful agreement to break or enter as many times as the participants could get away with. But for Cox’s cooperation with Durham police, defendant and Cox would have presumably kept on breaking into and stealing from the same or similar stores. The State’s argument that each conversation that Cox and defendant had between break-ins constituted a separate agreement to break or enter is not supported by the evidence. Even the prosecutor said at trial during the hearing on defendant’s motion to dismiss the charges as to the Deluxe Prod *123 ucts break-in that “the date on this one [Deluxe Products] is getting late in the conspiracy, August 22.’’ (Emphasis supplied.)

We find that the evidence supports defendant’s Assignment of Error as to the judgments and sentencing on multiple conspiracies, and hereby vacate the three judgments on the seven conspiracy convictions (Case Nos. 85CRS32365, 32366, 32368, 32615, 32616, 32619, 32370), and remand with instructions to the trial court to enter judgment on conspiracy to commit felonious breaking or entering in Case No. 85CRS32366.

B

Defendant’s thirteenth Assignment of Error, raised in his motion to this Court to amend the record, raises the issue of whether the trial court properly entered judgment on the conspiracy convictions as Class H Felonies with a maximum term of ten years and a presumptive term of three years. Defendant contends that conspiracy to commit felonious breaking or entering is punishable as a Class J Felony. We agree.

The trial court sentenced defendant to three years on each judgment as to the conspiracy convictions. The judgment and commitment forms in the record show the trial court delineated each “Conspiracy to commit B & E” conviction as a Class H Felony, which class of felony is punishable by a maximum ten-year prison term with a presumptive three-year prison term. As noted in the State’s brief and defendant’s motion to amend the record on appeal, G.S. 14-2.401 provides that a conspiracy to commit a Class H Felony, such as felonious breaking or entering under G.S. 14 54(a), is punishable as a Class J Felony by a maximum term of three years with a presumptive term of one year. We find that the trial court erred by sentencing defendant as a Class H Felon on the conspiracy counts. Upon remand defendant shall be resen-tenced as a Class J Felon on one count of conspiracy to commit felonious breaking or entering.

II

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Bluebook (online)
357 S.E.2d 174, 86 N.C. App. 114, 1987 N.C. App. LEXIS 2691, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-medlin-ncctapp-1987.