Opinion ID: 1057780
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Aggravated Robbery of DeAngelo Mitchell

Text: On August 27, 2003, DeAngelo Mitchell, an assistant on a delivery truck for Forrest City Grocery, was unloading merchandise at Yung's Food Market. While he was inside the trailer, the Defendant entered, raised his shirt to reveal the butt of a pistol, and ordered him not to move. Mitchell, fearful of the circumstances, stood still as the Defendant moved cases of cigarettes to the trailer door. A second robber put the cases into a Delta 88 automobile that had no license plate. Employees of Yung's Food Market called the police. Mitchell, who got a good look at the Defendant, picked his photo out of a photographic array and later, at trial, made a positive identification. He testified that he was sure that the Defendant was the robber. After receiving a report from the police dispatcher that the robbers at Yung's were two black males in a blue Delta 88, Memphis Police Officer Myron Lawrence observed a car matching that description and began pursuit. After a ten- or fifteen-minute chase, the car was stopped and the two occupants fled on foot. The officers followed, apprehending the Defendant and a second male individual. [3] The investigating officers determined that the Oldsmobile Delta 88, used in the August 27th robbery of Mitchell, and a Chevy Lumina, the make used in the July 11th robbery of Crain, were owned by Victor Frayser, Rodney Finley's girlfriend, who was also indicted for the August 27th robbery. Upon searching the Oldsmobile, officers found cases of cigarettes. Memphis Police Officer David Ayers had as his primary duty at that time to investigate other similar robberies. In response to a question by the defense, he testified that his department had received reports of cigarette thefts from delivery trucks for about ninety days preceding July 11, 2003. Defense counsel then asked, Did you know that [the Defendant] was in jail prior to July 11? Although Officer Ayers expressed uncertainty about the comparative dates, he conceded that he was not able to develop any connections between the Defendant and the other robberies under his investigation. At the conclusion of the State's proof, defense counsel conducted a voir dire of Finley, who invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify in the Defendant's trial. The trial court denied a subsequent motion by the Defendant to admit Finley's pretrial statement into evidence. The Defendant, who had been incarcerated for several months until his release some seven days before the first of the four robberies, testified on his own behalf. He denied involvement in three of the charges but admitted that he stole cigarettes from Mitchell on August 27, 2003; however, he claimed that he did not possess a weapon and contended that he was guilty of only theft, rather than either robbery or aggravated robbery. [4] The jury returned guilty verdicts for robbery for the Crain and Shears/Richardson indictments and for the aggravated robbery on the Yarbrough and Mitchell indictments. The trial court imposed sentences of ten, ten, seventeen, and seventeen years respectively. Because the sentences were ordered to be served consecutively, the effective sentence was fifty-four years. While otherwise affirming the convictions and sentences, the Court of Criminal Appeals modified the Crain robbery to theft. Applying a subjective standard as to the victim's state of mind, the majority held that the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction for the robbery because Crain disavowed being in fear. The majority concluded that [i]f a victim is put in fear by the action of a defendant, at some point the victim's testimony should establish that he was afraid. All other issues were resolved in favor of the State.