Court Opinion

ID: 9714733
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:44:34.550679+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:28.274947
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Judge,
dissenting.
This dissenting judge has never known of a robber who, after robbing his victim, puts his gun in his pocket, shakes hands with the victim and informs him he is free to go (probably to call the police). It is logical to assume that any robber worth his salt would, in attempting to escape, tell the victim not to move until he is away from the area. The escape is just as much a part of the successful completion of the crime as taking money from the victim. The legislature understood this when it passed the robbery statute and fixed the presumptive sentence for its violation.
Yet, the majority holds that a robber who tells the victim not to move while he tries to escape commits not only robbery but confinement as well. Under this reasoning, a robber who held up a candy store and who, after taking the money and without saying anything, backs up twenty feet to the door with his gun trained on the victim, could be convicted of confinement after the robbery. I cannot agree with this position. Here, the victim testified that when he turned around, Polk and his cohort started running and told the victim not to move as they ran away. This cannot, in my opinion, support a conviction of confinement in addition to the robbery conviction. I would therefore vacate Polk's confinement conviction.