Court Opinion

ID: 9569555
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:14:59.064745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:03:27.643418
License: Public Domain

•Justice EXUM
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that defendant was not entitled to have the jury consider the lesser included offense of non-felonious breaking and -entering. Generally the majority correctly states the legal principles governing this question. I disagree, however, with the majority’s application of these principles to the facts. As the majority correctly notes, an essential element of burglary is an intent at the time of entry to commit a felony inside the dwelling. •Certainly the state’s evidence is such that a jury could find that the defendant’s entry here was with intent to commit rape, as charged in the indictment. Defendant’s evidence tends to show, however, that there was no such intent on his part and, furthermore, that his entry was with consent of the occupant. His evidence, if'fully believed, would render him not guilty of any offense. A jury is, of course, not required to accept all of his testimony. It may believe any part or none of it.
' His testimony, though, does constitute positive evidence conflicting with that of the state as to the essential element of felonious intent. I find this case indistinguishable in principle from State v. Drumgold, 297 N.C. 267, 254 S.E. 2d 531 (1979). There this Court said, id. at 271, 254 S.E. 2d at 533:
“It is well settled that ‘a defendant is entitled to have all lesser degrees of offenses supported by the evidence submitted to the jury as possible alternate verdicts.’ State v. Palmer, 293 N.C. 633, 643-44, 239 S.E. 2d 406, 413 (1977). On the. other hand, the trial court need not submit lesser degrees of a crime to the jury ‘when the State’s evidence is positive as to. each and every element of the crime charged and there is no conflicting evidence relating to any element of the charged crime. ’ State v. Harvey, 281 N.C. 1, 13-14, 187 S.E. 2d 706, 714 (1972). (Emphasis added.)”
*398In Drumgold the state’s evidence tended to show that defendant raped Mrs. Epps overcoming her resistance with the use of a deadly weapon. Defendant’s evidence tended to show that he had consensual sex with Mrs. Epps and did not have in his possession a deadly weapon, ie., that he was not guilty of any offense. We held defendant was not only entitled to have the jury consider whether he was guilty of first degree rape or not guilty, but that the lesser included offense of second degree rape should likewise have been submitted because defendant’s testimony conflicted with that of the state on an essential element of first degree rape, ie., the use of a deadly weapon.
So it is here. Defendant testified in effect that he had no intent to rape Barbara Smith when he entered her dwelling. He also testified that he did not have sexual intercourse with her once inside; instead, he merely tried to kiss her and told her “that’s all I am going to do.” This is positive evidence of a lack of the requisite felonious intent at the time of entry, which, if believed by the jury, would render defendant guilty at most of non-felonious breaking and entering even if the jury further believed that he entered the dwelling unlawfully, ie., without Barbara Smith’s consent.
Under the majority’s view a defendant testifying in his own behalf would apparently have to admit that he entered the dwelling wrongfully but did so with no intent to commit rape in order to raise a factual issue regarding his intent at the time of entry. If, however, he denies both the wrongful entry and the felonious intent, he is not entitled to have the jury consider, independently of the question of wrongful entry, the question of his intent upon entering. This is not the law. Where there is conflicting evidence as to all elements of a criminal offense, the jury need not accept all or none of either the state’s or the- defendant’s evidence. It may believe only part of the evidence on either or both sides. That defendant’s evidence, if fully believed, would be a complete defense should not bar him from the benefit of a partial defense which would arise if his evidence is only partially believed.
This case is unlike State v. Allen, decided this day, 297 N.C. 429, 255 S.E. 2d 362, where the defendant denied he was the victim’s assailant and introduced evidence tending to show alibi and mistaken identity. A defendant is not entitled to rely on the *399possibility that the jury may believe only a part of the state’s evidence as a ground for submission of a lesser included offense. In such a case there is no positive, contradictory evidence of a lesser offense and the jury need decide only whether defendant was indeed the perpetrator. State v. Lentz, 270 N.C. 122, 153 S.E. 2d 864, cert. denied, 389 U.S. 866 (1967).
Here, however, the question is not whether defendant was the perpetrator. The question is what crime, if any, he committed. There is positive evidence to support either burglary in the first degree, non-felonious breaking and entry, or not guilty.