Court Opinion

ID: 9566322
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:37:07.217201+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:35:45.339600
License: Public Domain

Justice MEYER
dissenting.
The context of incident that the majority finds to be reversible error was as follows. During his closing argument, the prosecutor discussed the intent element of larceny, and the following exchange occurred:
*562[The State]: And the final element of the crime of felonious breaking or entering is that the breaking or entering was done with the intent to commit larceny. Now ladies and gentlemen, intent, as Judge Owens is going to tell you in a little while, is a process of the mind. It’s right up here. It’s not susceptible to direct proof. What must come from circumstantial evidence and things that can be inferred.
Now the defendant hasn’t taken the stand in this case —
Mr. BURKHEIMER: Objection to his remarks about that, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Overruled.
Mr. Burkheimer: Exception.
[THE STATE]: The defendant hasn’t taken the stand in this case. He has that right. You’re not to hold that against him. But ladies and gentlemen, we have to look at the other evidence to look at intent in this case. What do we have? Well, we’ve got a hole in the back wall. Why would anybody do that? Just for the heck of it? Is this vandalism? The State contends that it’s not. We’ve got an entry into the building. Just wanted to go in there, do something, take a look around? State contends that’s preposterous. But the most damning of all evidence is that set of shoe tracks going right to the drug counter.
Assuming, arguendo, that the prosecutor’s reference, to the effect that defendant had not taken the stand was error, I believe that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. I am unpersuaded by the majority’s contention that the evidence against defendant was insufficient to justify such a finding.
The uncontradicted evidence of defendant’s guilt of the crime charged was overwhelming. A man meeting the general description of defendant was noticed near the back door of the Reveo where the break-in took place just days before the crime. On 1 February 1988, Charlotte McCorcle, pharmacist assistant manager at Reveo, was called to the store by an activated alarm. Upon entering the store with a sheriff’s deputy, she noticed that drugs on the shelves were in disarray, there were muddy shoe prints and fingerprints on the floor and the shelves, and the meter box at the back of the store had been pulled off the wall and was missing. There *563was also a hole in the back wall that had not been there when Ms. McCorcle had closed and locked the store the night before.
The activated alarm also notified patrol officers Sergeant Paul Brittain and Officer Sandra Brown of a possible break-in at Reveo. The officers received the call at 2:25 a.m. on 1 February 1988 and proceeded north on Highway 321 toward Pinewood Shopping Center. As they approached the shopping center, the only automobile they observed was a parked Ford facing in the opposite direction. This automobile was located approximately one hundred yards from the shopping center through the woods. As the officers approached the parking lot of the shopping center, they observed no other cars or persons. They noticed that the lights were out at Reveo. They drove to the back of the building and noticed that the meter box was missing from the back of Reveo. They drove to where the Ford had been parked to try to obtain its license number and discovered that the car was gone. Less than two minutes later, they saw the car on Highway 321, traveling in a northerly direction. Officer Brown observed a person later identified as defendant driving the car.
Officer Brown testified that the vehicle was traveling at an accelerated speed without its headlights on. Sergeant Brittain activated his siren and blue lights and chased defendant’s car, reaching speeds between seventy and ninety miles per hour. Defendant did not stop immediately but did finally pull over and slowly moved down the right side of the road. The only occupant of the car was defendant. Both passenger and driver windows were rolled down on a cold, wet night.
Defendant told Sergeant Brittain that he had run out of gas, although he gave no explanation for the car starting after the officers first observed him. Sergeant Brittain also observed cloth gloves on the back floorboard of the car. Defendant voluntarily returned to Reveo with the officers.
When defendant returned to Reveo, another officer (Officer Seagle) observed white foam pellet insulation (which was consistent with the insulation in the hole in Revco’s back wall) in defendant’s hair. Additional evidence collected at the scene of the crime included, inter alia, footwear impressions containing foam bead insulation which matched defendant’s footwear, foam bead insulation from defendant’s clothes which matched the insulation at Reveo, foam bead insulation from the floorboard of defendant’s car and brown *564cotton gloves found in the car, and fibers taken from the point of entry which matched the fibers in the toboggan defendant was wearing that night. The officers located a sledgehammer by the side of the road where defendant had slowed down before he stopped his car. The sledgehammer was dry, although it was a cold, wet night. The missing meter box was later found in a dumpster.
At trial, Officer Keith Powers of the Winston-Salem Police Department testified to a separate incident that occurred on 3 January 1989 when he responded to an activated alarm call at Pleasant’s Hardware in Winston-Salem at approximately 3:49 a.m. When he checked the store for signs of a break-in, he noted a hole knocked in the back of the building and then discovered defendant inside the building. The evidence indicated that this hole was consistent in size and shape to the hole in the back of Reveo found during the break-in of February 1988.
Unlike the majority, I conclude that the prosecutor’s reference to defendant’s failure to take the stand had no bearing on the jury’s inference that defendant entered the store with the intent to commit larceny. I find the evidence adequate to support a determination that the error in question was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.