Opinion ID: 1822272
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Did the Court err in giving the C-10 instruction regarding the elements of robbery?

Text: ¶ 13. McDowell next suggests that the granting of the Instruction C-10 regarding the elements of robbery was reversible error. McDowell claims that the State failed to prove that he robbed Whitten while he was still alive. McDowell offers no authority to support his proposition that one must be robbed before being killed, in order to have met the elements of robbery. In Arthur v. State, 735 So.2d 213, 220 (Miss.1999), we held that it does not matter whether the taking occurred before or after the murder. ¶ 14. McDowell also asserts that there was no proof that he carried away or removed any of Whitten's property. However, the statute under which McDowell was indicted proscribes robbery by exhibition of a deadly weapon but does not require proof of asportation. Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-79 outlines the elements of robbery and states in pertinent part: Every person who shall feloniously take or attempt to take from the person or from the presence the personal property of another and against his will by violence to his person or by putting such person in fear of immediate injury to his person by the exhibition of a deadly weapon shall be guilty of robbery.... Miss.Code Ann. § 97-3-79 (2000). ¶ 15. Asportation, though an element of larceny, is not an element of robbery since robbery may, on the proper facts, be proven by the mere attempt to take the property of another from his person or presence. Cooper v. State, 386 So.2d 1115, 1116 (Miss.1980). This issue is without merit.