Court Opinion

ID: 875959
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-06-04 20:21:13.564597+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:50.872811
License: Public Domain

No. 12923

          IN THE SUPREME COIJRT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA

                                           1975

THE STATE OF MONTANA,

                                 P l a i n t i f f and Respondent,

          -vs   -
JERRY A. AMOR,

                                 Defendant and A p p e l l a n t .

Appeal from:          D i s t r i c t Court o f t h e E i g h t h J u d i c i a l D i s t r i c t ,
                      Honorable P a u l G. H a t f i e l d , Judge p r e s i d i n g .

Counsel o f Record :

     For Appellant :

                M o r r i s o n , E t t i e n and Barron, Havre, Montana
                R o b e r t D. Morrison a r g u e d , Havre, Montana

     F o r Respondent:

                Hon. R o b e r t L. Woodahl, A t t o r n e y G e n e r a l , Helena,
                  Montana
                J o c k 0. Anderson, A s s i s t a n t A t t o r n e y G e n e r a l , a r g u e d ,
                  Helena, Montana
                A. Evon Anderson, County A t t o r n e y , a r g u e d , F o r t Benton,
                  Montana

                                                      Submitted:          September 23, 1975

                                                           Decided: ,ji";r        r:
                                                                                  35 Mont. 342, 89 P. 61.       This Court in State v. Solis,
163 Mont. 293, 295, 516 P.2d 1157, has recently stated:
          "Commission of a burglary is predicated upon the
         'entry' with the requisite felonious intent. Hence,
         the burglary occurs at the time of the entry upon
         the premises."
          In order to establish entry in the nighttime, substantial
evidence must be presented by the State establishing the time
when such entry occurred.    State v. Fitzpatrick, 125 Mont. 448,

         The only witness presented by the State who might have
testified as to the time of entry was the owner of the drug
store.   He testified that he had not been in his store the after-
noon of the burglary, and was in fact in Havre that afternoon,
returning to Big Sandy around 11:OO p.m. that night.           There was

no testimony presented as to what time the store closed on
October 12, 1973, nor as to what time any employees locked up
the store on that day, nor as to when the stolen merchandise
was last seen in the store.        No witness for the State testified
as to the time of sunset on October 12, 1973, so as to set a
time after which the requisite nighttime entry might happen.
         The State admits the evidence of nighttime entry intro-
duced at trial was circumstantial and required the jury to infer
that the requisite nighttime entry had occurred.          The jury was

left to rely on those facts which exist in the minds of all jurors
by virtue of their common knowledge and experience to infer the
time of entry.    All without the introduction of substantial evi-

dence as to time of entry.
         As this Court said in Fitzpatrick, at page 452:
         "Not only was there no substantial evidence to
         prove when the burglary occurred, but there was
         a total failure on the part of the state to prove
         such burglary was committed in the nighttime. This
         being so, the state failed to prove one of the
         essential elements of the crime, as charged in the
         information, and the judgment of conviction cannot
         stand. "
         The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded to
the district court with directions to dismiss the information.

                                               Chief Justice
We concur:

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d s tices
                                   -   4   -