Court Opinion

ID: 9573205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:49:42.381029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:38:05.943159
License: Public Domain

Justice HUSKINS dissenting as to defendant Lyles.
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that the trial court erred in denying the motion to dismiss as to defendant Lyles. The State’s evidence places defendant Rose on the motel premises fumbling with the knob on the office door around 2:30 a.m. on the morning of 24 February 1977. Defendant Lyles was first seen on the motel premises about 6:15 a.m. that same morning in his blue-green station wagon parked near the laundry room. Lyles and Rose left in the vehicle with Lyles driving and Rose attempting to conceal himself. A master motel key was missing and a later search of the Lyles station wagon uncovered a master motel key behind the “kick panel” which, when tested, opened the doors of the motel rooms, including the rooms that had been burglarized. The doors showed no signs of forced entry and the occupants testified they had locked the doors before going to bed. The Lyles vehicle also contained a bedspread like the bedspreads used in the Howard Johnson motel rooms. Such a bedspread was missing after the burglary.
The fact that Lyles and his station wagon were not discovered on the premises until after the burglary does not require dismissal of the charges against him. Lyles was discovered driving Rose away from the premises in a vehicle registered in Lyles’ name. This circumstance together with the subsequent discovery of the master key and the bedspread in Lyles’ car, unexplained, gives rise to a permissible inference that the burglary was a joint venture — Rose serving as Mr. Inside and Lyles as Mr. Outside. These facts support the further inference that while the burglary was being committed by Rose, Lyles was nearby, to the knowledge of Rose, ready to furnish the means of escape. “It is settled law that all who are present (either actually or constructively) at the place of a crime and are either aiding, abetting, assisting, or advising in its commission, or are present for such purpose, to the knowledge of the actual perpetrator, are principals and are equally guilty.” State v. Holland, 234 N.C. 354, 67 S.E. 2d 272 (1951).
*191In my view, when considered in the light most favorable to the State, the evidence is sufficient to carry the case to the jury and support a verdict of guilty as to Lyles as an aider and abettor, and thus equally guilty as a principal. I vote to uphold the convictions of both defendants.
Justice CARLTON joins in this dissenting opinion.