Title: State v. Hitchcock
Citation: 350 P.2d 681, 87 Ariz. 277
Docket Number: 1126
State: Arizona
Issuer: Arizona Supreme Court
Date: March 23, 1960

87 Ariz. 277 (1960) 350 P.2d 681 STATE of Arizona, Appellee, v. Benjamin HITCHCOCK, Appellant. No. 1126. Supreme Court of Arizona. March 23, 1960. *278 Patrick W. O'Reilly, Phoenix, for appellant. *279 Wade Church, Atty. Gen., Leslie C. Hardy, Chief Asst. Atty. Gen., Franklin K. Gibson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee. PHELPS, Justice. The appellant, Benjamin Hitchcock, hereinafter referred to as defendant was convicted in the Superior Court of Maricopa County of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life imprisonment. The first count of the information charged him with having killed one Ernest A. DiVito while in the commission of a robbery; the second and third counts charged him with kidnaping. The defendant was acquitted of the kidnaping charges but was found guilty of murder in the first degree. The applicable statutes upon which the murder count of the information was based are as follows: From that verdict and judgment and from the court's order denying defendant's motion for a new trial, the defendant brings this appeal. The facts are that the defendant appeared at the office of Ernest DiVito on the morning of the 16th of October and asked the secretary, Miss Audrey Wedlock, if they had received final payment on a contract which they had recently completed, claiming that deceased owed him money which he had promised to pay when final payment was made on said contract. She replied that it had not been paid. As Ernest DeVito emerged from a rear office defendant pulled a gun. He removed two checkbooks from the secretary's desk and after examining the balance shown in one, put them into his pocket. He then took a check protector in his right arm and at gun point ordered Ernest DiVito and the secretary, Miss Wedlock, to go with him. As defendant was backing Ernest DiVito's car out of the driveway, his brother, Anthony DiVito, arrived. A struggle for *280 possession of the gun resulted in its being thrown into the street. But before defendant was completely subdued, he produced a second gun which he discharged two times. One of the projectals struck Ernest DiVito, passing through his arm and chest and lodging in his third dorsal vertebrae, resulting in his death. Defendant makes three assignments of error, the first of which is stated as follows: The first part of this assignment of error charges that the evidence discloses that the robbery was at an end when the killing occurred and implies that therefore the felony-murder rule should not have been applied. The basis of defendant's argument in connection with this contention is found in Anthony DiVito's testimony on cross-examination. After this witness had testified that he had apparently disarmed the defendant by throwing the first gun into the street, counsel for defendant skillfully gained an affirmative answer to the following question: It is defendant's contention that at this point in time he had been subdued and that the robbery or attempted robbery was at an end. Contrariwise, an examination of the transcript in this case totaling over 750 pages and bound in three volumes does not sustain the defendant's position. There was no appreciable span of time nor appreciable change in the respective position of the parties between the disarming of defendant and the shooting; nor any overt act on the part of the defendant which would indicate to those present that he had abandoned the robbery or that it was at an end. The evidence indicates that the events which transpired immediately preceding the shooting occurred in rapid sequence and as a part of the chain of events which defendant's deliberate acts had set in motion. The clear import of the evidence is that defendant had not been subdued or even apparently subdued at that point in time when he had been seemingly disarmed. *281 And the remainder of Anthony DiVito's testimony makes it equally clear that his purpose in pulling defendant out of the car in order to "have a legal fight with him," was to restrain him until the police arrived. A well-reasoned opinion cited by the State, Commonwealth v. Almeida, 362 Pa. 596, 68 A.2d 595, 599, 12 A.L.R.2d 183, thoroughly discusses this problem. In applying the felony-murder rule the court held the defendant accountable for the death of a policeman attempting to apprehend the defendant although the fatal shot may have been fired mistakenly by another policeman. In so ruling, the court cited numerous criminal and civil cases as well as many of the most noted authorities. The court there said: In Commonwealth v. Byron, 357 Pa. 181, 53 A.2d 736, 741, the court made a statement which is especially germane to this case: Nothing could be more natural than for one to intervene where a member of his family is being held at gun point as did Anthony DiVito in this case. The second part of defendant's first assignment of error charges that: It is argued that since the jury found defendant not guilty of kidnaping Ernest DiVito and his secretary, that they accompanied defendant of their own free will. It is said to necessarily follow that the property of which defendant was charged with taking by force or fear was never out of the presence or the possession of the deceased; and consequently, there was no taking as is necessary to constitute the crime of robbery under the statute. The answer to the last above claim is that the law relating to robbery does not require the property to be taken out of the presence of the person robbed. It is sufficient if the taking is from the person of one who is robbed or in his immediate presence. In either case if the person robbed is killed the killing constitutes murder in the first degree under A.R.S. § 13-452, supra. In instructing the jury on the felony-murder rule as it is applied under our statutes, the court correctly stated: Suffice it to say that the jury in finding defendant guilty was apparently satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that there was a taking of property in the commission of robbery and that defendant was still engaged in the perpetration of robbery when the killing occurred. Another shortcoming of defendant's argument is the assumption that the jury's finding that the defendant was not guilty of kidnaping Ernest DiVito and his secretary is tantamount to a finding that they accompanied defendant of their own free will. Examining the instructions again, we *283 find that the jury was instructed as follows concerning the law of kidnaping: Under the foregoing instruction, the jury in finding the defendant not guilty of the kidnaping charges might very well have done so on the basis that defendant lacked the requisite specific intent to detain them. But it does not necessarily follow that in accompanying the defendant they freely did so. Another deficiency in defendant's argument is his position that inasmuch as the deceased was in defendant's presence after defendant took the articles, there was no asportation. A.R.S. § 13-641, defines robbery as follows: Our Legislature in adopting this statute from California employed its identical language. The California cases construing it therefore, are particularly helpful. In People v. Beal, 3 Cal. App. 2d 251, 39 P.2d 504, 505, the court discussed this problem as follows: See also People v. Clark, 70 Cal. App. 2d 132, 160 P.2d 553; People v. Quinn, 77 Cal. App. 2d 734, 176 P.2d 404, and Duffy v. Hudspeth, 10 Cir., 112 F.2d 559, to the same effect. In People v. Quinn, supra, defendants armed with a pistol, ordered the victim out of his automobile and to throw his wallet on the ground. They then compelled him to pick it up again to show whether it contained any money. Notwithstanding that the victim was allowed to keep his wallet when it was found to contain no money, the California court held that there had been a sufficient taking to sustain the conviction of robbery under the statute. In so holding, the court said [77 Cal. App. 2d 734, 176 P.2d 405]: We have cited the Quinn case, supra, because counsel for defendant, contrary to the testimony of the deceased's secretary, Miss Wedlock, but in accord with the defendant's testimony, contends that the deceased and not the defendant carried the items from the office to the car. In the *285 instant case, evidence that the articles were removed from the victim's office at gun point by the direction of defendant is a sufficient taking to sustain the conviction of robbery under the statute. Defendant's second assignment of error alleges that: This raises the question of whether the remarks of a bystander made in the courtroom so influenced the jury as to deprive him of a fair and impartial trial. During the trial a deputy sheriff, who guarded the defendant, reported to the court that during a recess and as the jury was passing out of the courtroom, a member of the audience stated in a voice in tones that were louder than is normally used in conversation: The deputy reported that this comment was made just as the jury was passing between the person speaking and himself, so there can be little doubt that it could have been heard by them. Counsel for defendant moved for a mistrial on the ground that the incident had prejudiced the defendant. On Appeal it is asserted that the court erred in failing to order a mistrial or admonish the jury to completely disregard the remarks of bystanders in the courtroom. It is submitted by the attorneys on behalf of the State that during the trial the defendant moved for a mistrial and not for the court to instruct the jurors to disregard the matter; that the observation of the court showed that he had not heard the disturbance and that he had previously admonished the jury to report to him any discussion of the case which they might hear and that nothing had been reported to him; that there was no showing that any of the jurors did in fact hear the remark, and that even if a juror did hear the remark and failed to report it, it cannot be stated that defendant was prejudiced thereby for the matter stated had previously been testified to on the witness stand. It is the observation of this court, however, that the verdict cured any error which the trial court committed, if any, in failing to direct a mistrial or to admonish the jury. This is true for the reason that the verdict rendered, made the issue in this court moot. The only reason for a judge to declare a mistrial or admonish the jury in such cases is to protect the defendant from the possibility of prejudice being generated in the minds of the jurors. *286 The jury's verdict that the defendant was not guilty of the kidnaping charges is conclusive as a matter of law that the remark alluded to [that defendant had kidnaped him at gun point] did not arouse such prejudice in their minds. Defendant's third assignment of error charges that: The above assignment of error alleges that the following jury instruction was erroneous in two particulars: It is first contended that the instruction as set forth assumes the fact that the defendant was engaged in the crime of robbery and constitutes a comment on the evidence. Taking the instructions in their entirety, however, as they are received by the jury, it is impossible to follow the defendant's reasoning that the instruction assumes that he was engaged in the robbery. The above quotation is only a small portion of the instruction given on that point. To illustrate what we mean, we shall quote some of the most illuminating ones relating to the crime of robbery. The jury was fully instructed concerning their duties as to all phases of the case. They were told for example to: It is next contended by defendant that the disputed instruction is too broad and is therefore an incorrect statement of the law. In the cases cited by defendant the instructions were so broad that they did not require the jury to find a causal connection between the killing and the robbery. The instruction in the instant case, however, requires the jury to first find that the robbery caused defensive forces to be called into action, and second, that the activity of the defensive forces thus called into activity caused the death of a human *288 being. Hence, the instruction is to the effect that a death resulting from or being the proximate result of a robbery is murder. For the foregoing reasons the judgment of conviction of Benjamin Hitchcock is hereby affirmed. STRUCKMEYER, C.J., and UDALL, JOHNSON and BERNSTEIN, JJ., concur.