Court Opinion

ID: 9527953
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:35:46.615707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:18.660807
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE LINDBERG, dissenting in part: I dissent from that part of the majority’s holding which reversed defendants’ convictions for burglary. I believe that the jury was entitled to conclude from the evidence that defendant Obrochta was engaged in a burglary just before being observed by Mrs. Kube running from her garage after she had inquired of Koroluk what he was doing outside her garage door. Koroluk’s conviction of burglary would then be on the theory of accountability discussed in the majority opinion. On the record in this case the jury was entitled to consider that: there was no evidence that defendants knew upon leaving Zuniga’s car that they were being pursued, having outrun Chief Potter and having departed Zuniga’s car apparently without detection; defendants’ theory of innocence, hiding from the police rather than committing a burglary, was belied by the presence of one of the defendants at Mrs. Kube’s garage door standing in open view since, by definition, persons hiding do not stand in open view; having a person stand as a lookout while a burglary was being committed is consistent with the jury’s conclusion that a burglary was being committed; when they were observed by Mrs. Kube, defendants had not abandoned their burglary tools, as would persons who thought they were in imminent danger of apprehension; and Obrochta’s discarding of the satchel of burglary tools when he knew he was in imminent danger of detection and apprehension by Officer Ebert reinforces the conclusion that defendants were not hiding in the Kube garage, but, rather, they entered the garage without authority and in possession of burglary tools to commit a theft therein. Therefore, I would affirm the jury’s verdict finding defendants guilty of burglary.