Opinion ID: 2033894
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: C. XX-XX-X-X(c) (Burns Supp. 1975).

Text: It seems highly likely that third degree burglary, which was often not a lesser and included offense of first and second degree burglary and thus, in an important respect, not often a species of burglary at all, was moved at the time of codification to and subsumed in the criminal trespass statute. With the duty to give due deference to the legislative prerogative to define crimes and punishments on the one hand, and the duty to narrowly construe ambiguity in criminal statutes on the other hand, the correct conclusion to be reached here is that a fenced yard is not a structure within the meaning of that term in the burglary statute. I would reverse the conviction for burglary and affirm the conviction for resisting law enforcement.