Court Opinion

ID: 9850675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:01:18.599305+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:41.383477
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Judge,
concurring in result.
I would concur in the result of the court in this matter but do have to speak to the court’s findings that harmless error occurred as it relates to the instruction on flight. From reading the facts situation, it appears clear that two separate acts occurred in this case. The appellant stole a YCR when he removed the instrument from the shelf and took the VCR out of the store. A second act occurred when the store manager attempts to retrieve the VCR from the appellant and the appellant gave flight by running away after the commission of the initial crime. This would certainly allow the instruction on flight.
It should be noted that flight is not merely “running away” as the court finds but flight could be running, driving away, taking an airplane, or any other means to avoid apprehension. Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary finds flight as “an act or an instance of fleeing”, < unlawful flight to escape arrest>. Black’s Law Dictionary Fifth Edition states that flight from justice is “the evading of the course of justice by voluntarily withdrawing one’s self in order to avoid arrest or detention ...”. As can be seen from these definitions, flight does not necessarily stop with just running away.
Therefore, I would find that the instruction was not improper and that the jury was entitled to the instruction on flight.