Opinion ID: 2233565
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Refusal To Give a Lesser Included Offense Instruction.

Text: Defendant was charged with violating SDCL 22-32-8, the third-degree burglary statute. The trial court refused to give defendant's lesser included offense instruction based upon SDCL 22-32-16, which at all times material herein provided that [a]ny person who, under circumstances not amounting to burglary, enters a structure with intent to commit any crime is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Whether the misdemeanor offense set forth in SDCL 22-32-16 is included within the offense of third-degree burglary specified by SDCL 22-32-8 is a question on which our decisions have provided a less than clear-cut, consistent answer. Compare, e.g., State v. O'Connor, 265 N.W.2d 709 (S.D.1978), with State v. Kafka, 264 N.W.2d 702 (S.D.1978); State v. Blakey, 332 N.W.2d 729 (S.D.1983); and State v. Rodriguez, 347 N.W.2d 582 (S.D.1984). Perhaps it was because of the difficulty in determining what factual situation would merit the application of this statute that the legislature repealed SDCL 22-32-16 in 1984. See 1984 S.D.Sess.Laws, ch. 170, § 1. In any event, the facts of the case before us support the trial court's determination that defendant was not entitled to the requested instruction inasmuch as there was no question but that the offense of third-degree burglary had been committed by the person who entered the store. State v. Oien, 302 N.W.2d 807 (S.D.1981); State v. Kafka, supra (Zastrow, J., concurring specially).