Opinion ID: 2286082
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: There Was Sufficient Evidence of Quisenberry's Participation in the Robbery.

Text: Seldom is there direct evidence of a defendant's state of mind, but direct evidence is not required. As we recently reiterated in Rogers v. Commonwealth, 315 S.W.3d 303 (Ky.2010), state of mindintent in that casemay be established by circumstantial evidence. That evidence includes the defendant's actions preceding and following the charged offense, Commonwealth v. Suttles, 80 S.W.3d 424, 426 (Ky.2002), as well as the defendant's knowledge and the surrounding circumstances. Marshall v. Commonwealth, 60 S.W.3d 513 (Ky.2001). With respect to robbery, moreover, we also noted in Rogers that to be convicted of that crime, the accused need not have taken any money or other property from the victim with his own hands, or actually participated in any other act of force or violence; it is sufficient that he came and went with the robbers, was present when the robbery was committed, and acquiesced. 315 S.W.3d at 312 (citing Commonwealth v. Smith, 5 S.W.3d 126 (Ky. 1999)). From those circumstances, a reasonable juror could infer that the accused intended the robbery to occur and lent aid, if only by virtue of his approbation and the extra intimidation his presence adds to the force employed by others. See KRS 502.020 (providing in part that one is guilty of an offense committed by another if, intending to promote the offense, he aids in its commission). Here, of course, there was evidence that the two defendants had been together at a Walgreens pharmacy not long before the crimes, which permitted an inference that they drove to Harper's home together, and there was also Rashon Turner's testimony that Williams arrived at his mother's house in a car driven by Quisenberry, permitting an inference that the two left the robbery together as well. Turner also testified that Williams claimed Quisenberry went with him to Harper's house to obtain pills. By his own testimony, of course, Quisenberry acknowledged being present at Harper's home when the robbery must have occurred. The phone records established two calls to Harper from Quisenberry's phone, shortly after midnight on May 18. Given the evidence that Harper's pills were stolen, a reasonable juror could also infer that the pair's trip to the Walgreens pharmacy was also somehow an attempt to obtain pills, and that their breaking into the Walgreens pharmacist's car could reasonably be thought related: retaliation perhaps, or, at the very least, evidence of the men's willingness that night to break the law in pursuit of their goals. Not only was there evidence that Quisenberry drove Williams to and from the scene, but when the police interviewed him not long after the crimes, he concealed what he knew. From these circumstances a reasonable juror could conclude that Quisenberry was not a mere bystander at the robbery, but that he initiated contact with Harper, that he shared with Williams the purpose of obtaining drugs by whatever means necessary, that he drove the pair to Harper's home, and, however the robbery may have commenced, acquiesced in it once it had, and assisted in the getaway. There was sufficient evidence, in other words, of Quisenberry's complicity in the robbery; the trial court did not err by so finding.