Court Opinion

ID: 9673824
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:19:03.571903+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:24.315793
License: Public Domain

HYDE, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent from the opinion of Holman, P. J., herein. I consider this to be a case of robbery by violence under Sec. 560.120 RSMo, V.A.M.S.
The opinion recognizes, as quoted from 46 Am.Jur. 149, Robbery, Sec. 21: “The authorities are agreed that a sudden taking or snatching may be accompanied by sufficient force to constitute robbery. Thus, if a struggle immediately ensues to keep possession of the property and the thief overcomes the resistance, or the article snatched is so attached to the owner’s person as to afford resistance or injure the possessor in the taking, the violence is sufficient to constitute the act a robbery.”
An immediately ensuing struggle to keep possession is exactly what happened in this case according to the statement of defendant relied on by the opinion as the basis for its holding that the taking was not by violence, namely: “He said that he asked Mr. Wilks to loan him five dollars, and when Mr. Wilks pulled out his billfold, while they were all in the car, he grabbed the billfold away from him and [that] Mr. Wilks tried to get the billfold back and they began to fight and that he hit him several times with his fist.”
All of this occurred in Wilks’ car with defendant in the front seat with Wilks. Defendant was not able to get out of the car with Wilks’ billfold, or even to get away from Wilks on the seat, until he had struck him several times with his fist so violently that Wilks died shortly afterward. Although Wilks’ death may have been due to a heart attack, this condition resulted from the violence used even though the blows would not have caused the death of one with a normal heart. This is far different from a snatch-and-run case like State v. White, 326 Mo. 1000, 34 S.W.2d 79. Here the snatching alone was not enough to enable defendant to get away with Wilks’ billfold and he had to use great violence to do so. I would affirm the judgment.