Court Opinion

ID: 9551545
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:54:59.145924+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:24:05.971005
License: Public Domain

Fontron, J.,
dissenting: While I acknowledge the validity of the legal principles set forth in the court’s opinion, I arrive at a different destination in applying them to the facts of this case than does the majority. In simple language, I maintain there is sufficient evidence of record to justify a reasonable inference that Mr. Gobin and Mr. Smith, with Smith’s two trucks in tow, drove from Dodge City to Everett Webb’s pig farm north of Jetmore, a distance of some 35 miles, for the express purpose of pilfering pigs. The driving of the trucks that distance and to that place appears to me as being more than mere preparation; it was, as I see it, an overt act; the first in a series of active moves which would have led directly to consummation of a theft had not the owner fortuitously driven to the farm to shut the door to the farrowing house. The readying of the trucks and stock racks for the journey might well be termed preparation but driving the pickup into a private driveway leading from a dead-end road smack into “the middle of the hog lot” as Mr. Webb put it, at 10:20 p. m. and parking there is more, in my books, than preparation. It is an outward, open manifest aot. Neither Mr. Gobin nor Mr. Smith could have “exercised unauthorized control” over the pigs in Mr. Webb’s hog lot that night had they remained in Dodge City; they first had to get themselves and the trucks to the pig lot, and that required a moving, purposeful, motivated act.
I find little difficulty in saying the evidence was such that an intent to exert “unauthorized control”, or to steal, in other words, might well have been inferred by the jury. The hasty flight of the two men followed by a “cops and robbers” chase of the two trucks *286over the highways of Hodgeman County belies an honest purpose on their part in parking at the hog lot. Both a rifle and a revolver —hardly innocent toys — were found in the pickup, as were a check book and wallet belonging to Smith. A number of statements made by Gobin that night were evasive if not downright -untruthful. For example, Gobin said he was with his girl friend whereas Mr. Webb saw two “gentlemen” in the pickup parked on the driveway, not a pair of cuddly lovers.
The court indicates concern over the question of value — that is, may an attempt be inferred to steal $50 worth of hogs? There is evidence that the smallest pig in the Ipt-Avas worth $20 arid I find it not unreal to assume an intent opAhe part of Gobin to appropriate at least a pickup truck load of pigs, if not more.
One further fact may be noted as having a bearing on intent. A search of Gobin’s premises turned up two or three pigs, or possibly more, although Gobin had told the Hodgeman sheriff he had not had any pigs for over a year. It would appear he was in the pig business.
For the reasons assigned I respectfully dissent from Syllabus 4 and from corresponding parts of the opinion.
Fatzer, C. J., joins in the foregoing dissent.