Court Opinion

ID: 9663431
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 23:38:53.630644+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:39:49.755837
License: Public Domain

MacKenzie, J.
(dissenting in part). I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that res gestae witnesses were wrongfully not produced in the prosecution of the larceny in a building charge against defendant.
*142A res gestae witness is one who was witness to some event in the continuum of a criminal transaction and whose testimony would aid in developing a full disclosure of the facts surrounding the alleged commission of the charged offense. People v Carter, 415 Mich 558, 591; 330 NW2d 314 (1982). The decision of a trial court concerning the status of an alleged res gestae witness will not be overturned unless clearly erroneous. People v Abrego, 72 Mich App 176; 249 NW2d 345 (1976).
In this case, the trial court ruled:
The only persons disclosed to the Court who witnessed the taking of the iron were listed on the information and produced at trial. There is no information that any other persons were res gestae witnesses.
The witnesses requested by defendant were not res gestae witnesses but were witnesses who might possibly have supported defendant’s theory of the case as to what happened after the iron was taken from the shelf.
The defendant presented the defense that the iron was in the shopping cart and not under her dress and that she inadvertently failed to pay for the iron (forgetting that it was in the shopping cart). The witnesses pertaining to defendant’s defense were available to defendant to subpoena and there was no showing of an effort made by defendant to even attempt to do so.
I cannot conclude that this reasoning was clearly erroneous. The defendant denies that a criminal transaction occurred. The "continuum of the criminal transaction” alleged by the people is necessarily related to the alleged sequence of events establishing the elements of the crime charged. The essential elements of larceny in a building were set forth in People v Wilbourne, 44 *143Mich App 376, 378; 205 NW2d 250 (1973), as follows:
(1) an actual or constructive taking of goods or property, (2) a carrying away or asportation, (3) the carrying away must be with a felonious intent, (4) the subject matter must be the goods or the personal property of another, (5) the taking must be without the consent and against the will of the owner[,] . . . [and] (6) the taking must be done within the confines of the building.
Concealment of the goods satisfies the element of criminal intent. See, e.g., People v Bradovich, 305 Mich 329; 9 NW2d 560 (1943). As soon as criminal intent is present, the slightest movement of the goods within a self-service store constitutes asportation and the crime is complete. People v Patricia Williams, 63 Mich App 531; 234 NW2d 689 (1975). The.removal of the goods from the store is not part of the crime. See Patricia Williams, supra.
In this case, the circumstances surrounding the alleged commission of the charged offense were as follows: defendant removed an iron from the store’s shelf, placed it in her shopping cart, concealed it beneath her skirt and continued to shop about the store still carrying the iron. In my opinion, applying the above principles, the "continuum of the criminal transaction” in this case had ceased before defendant joined her sister or dealt with the store cashier. Accordingly, I agree with the trial court that these persons were not res gestae witnesses. Certainly defendant was free to call them — and anyone else — in support of her defense. It does not follow, however, that the prosecutor was obligated to endorse or produce them as witnesses.