Opinion ID: 1401242
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Ex post facto and harmless error

Text: In light of our holding, we have no occasion to address defendant's claim that judicial abolishment of the claim-of-right defense, if applied retroactively to his case, would violate the ex post facto clause and his right to due process under the Fifth Amendment. Although the source of the $200 taken during the robbery in this case was sharply contested  defendant claiming he brought it into the victim's home and conditionally offered it to her to use to pay bills, then took it back upon concluding she was going to give it to her mother; the victim and her mother in turn claiming the mother had brought it into the home and that defendant simply stole it from them  defendant never claimed he took $200 of like currency from the victim or the victim's mother in satisfaction of the debt, nor did the prosecution argue that, if defendant was believed, he did other than forcibly take back the same $200 in currency he brought into the home in the first instance. Defendant's testimony was that the victim had placed the $200 in her bra at some point, and that he grabbed it back from her person before fleeing from the residence. Given these facts, if the jury, properly instructed, believed defendant's testimony, then under Butler and our holding in this case, defendant's actions in seeking to recover from the victim, albeit with force, what he believed in good faith was his specific property, no matter how reprehensible and otherwise unlawful those actions may have been, did not constitute a felonious taking necessary for conviction of robbery. The People nonetheless urge that any error by the trial court in refusing to instruct the jury on a claim-of-right defense was harmless since [i]n the present case, [defendant's] account of the events was sharply at odds with Shelly's testimony regarding the offenses. Critically, the verdicts demonstrate that the jury completely rejected [defendant's] claims. We disagree. Once again, although it is true defendant's account of the incident and his relationship with Shelly at that time differed markedly from that of the victim and her mother, critically, it was defendant' s testimony, not the victim's, that directly established his forcible taking of the $200 from her person (grabbing the money from her bra) moments before he fled from the residence. The robbery verdict suggests the jury most likely credited at least that aspect of defendant's testimony. We have concluded the evidence would have supported the giving of a claim-of-right instruction. We further conclude the trial court's failure to so instruct the jury cannot be deemed harmless to the robbery conviction on the facts and testimony presented below.