Court Opinion

ID: 9670545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:22:14.137623+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:05.089228
License: Public Domain

M. J. Kelly, J.
(concurring). The instant scenario is difficult to distinguish from that occurring in People v Kyllonen, 402 Mich 135, 150; 262 NW2d 2 (1978), a non-guilty plea case, in which the Supreme Court inferred, without actually holding, that a factfinder must find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was not the thief in order to convict him of receiving and concealing stolen property. I am convinced that a defendant’s non-theft of the property involved should not be an essential element of the offense of receiving and concealing stolen property. Accord, People v Wolak, 110 Mich App 628, 634; 313 NW2d 174 (1981), lv den 414 Mich 940 (1982). I do not believe, therefore, that the import of Kyllonen to guilty-plea proceedings is a requirement that a plea-taking court satisy itself on the record that defendant was not the thief by asking him whether he himself stole the property that he is charged with possessing.
The essential question is whether the defendant’s statements in the instant case established support for a finding that he is guilty of the charged offense. See GCR 1963, 785.7(3)(a). Since defendant’s statements do establish support for a *297finding that he possessed stolen property, knowing it to be such, and his statements do not reflect that he stole the property, his conviction must be affirmed.