594 S.W.2d 939 | Mo. | 1980
Defendant, charged with robbery in the first degree (while acting with others) was convicted of stealing property valued at more than $50.00 and his punishment, a $250.00 fine, assessed by the jury. For his sole allegation of error, defendant contends the trial court improperly submitted the offense of stealing as the evidence failed to support the submission. The Court of Appeals, Eastern District, affirmed the conviction but ordered the cause transferred that we might examine the question of whether larceny of property valued at $50.00 or more, § 560.156, RSMo 1969 and § 560.161.-1(2), RSMo Supp.1975, is a lesser and necessarily included offense of robbery. Section 560.120, RSMo 1969.
The dispositive facts are these: Just after 1:00 a. m. and shortly before closing on September 25, 1977, Maude’s Bar in South St. Louis was robbed. The only employee present was the bartender Max Lynch who testified that four male customers were in the tavern at the time, three of whom had arrived approximately one and one-half hours earlier. The fourth man, identified by Lynch as defendant, entered the tavern about a half hour later than the others and, after purchasing a beer, joined them at a table in the rear of the room. As Lynch was washing glasses behind the bar one of the customers walked to the bar and apparently without warning seized Lynch and forced his head to the bar while another of
For the defense, evidence was presented demonstrating that Littlefield had been dropped off at Maude’s Bar at 12:55 a. m. by his brother and his brother’s girlfriend with whom he had been drinking earlier that evening. Defendant claimed that he ordered a beer then walked to the restroom. Coming out he saw three customers scuffling with the bartender and he hurriedly left the bar without offering to aid the beleaguered victim. He denied involvement in the robbery.
Citing State v. Sawyer, 365 S.W.2d 487, 492 (Mo.1963), defendant contends no facts were presented to support the submission of the lesser included offense of stealing. However, the bartender in the case sub judice, unlike the victim in Sawyer who was robbed at gun point, testified that although Littlefield was not one of his assailants, Littlefield was one of the two who ransacked the drawers behind the bar. The jury could have found that defendant though not one of the attackers nor acting in concert with them in the robbery, took advantage of the bartender’s plight by stealing from the unattended till. Hence substantial evidence supported the submission of the lesser offense of stealing over fifty dollars and it was proper to so instruct. State v. Herron, 349 S.W.2d 936, 940 (Mo.1961); State v. Parker, 324 S.W.2d 717, 721-722 (Mo.1959). Appellant’s contention is denied.
However, the Court of Appeals certifying the cause here on their own motion under Rule 83.02, raised a question other than that suggested by defendant. The appellate court doubted whether the crime of stealing $50.00 or more, is a lesser included offense within the crime of • robbery, charged in the information, so as to support instructing down. The robbery issue was submitted by instruction no. 8 adapting MAI-CR 7.60 to the facts in issue. This was followed by instruction no. 10, which presented alternatively the stealing issue; more specifically, stealing property valued at $50.00 or more under MAI-CR 7.70 as distinguished from stealing from the person
Whether an offense is a lesser included of another is determined by the “statutory elements” test. This Court, recently applying the test in State v. Smith and Hodges, 592 S.W.2d 165, 166 (Mo.banc 1979), explained there first must be an examination of the statutory elements of the greater crime (here robbery, § 560.120, RSMo 1969), and a matching of those elements against the statutory elements of the lesser offense (here stealing, § 560.156, RSMo 1969 and § 560.161.1(2), RSMo Supp.
. Pertinent portions of the relevant statutes are:
Section 560.120, RSMo 1969: “Robbery in first degree. Every person who shall be convicted of feloniously taking the property of another from his person, or in his presence, and against his will, by violence to his person, or by putting him in fear of some immediate injury to his person; . . . shall be adjudged guilty of
robbery in the first degree.”
Section 560.156, RSMo 1969: “Stealing — elements of offense.
1. As used in sections 560.156 and 560.161, the following words shall mean:
(1) ‘Property’, everything of value whether real or personal, . . . and all things defined as property in sections 556.070, 556.080 and 556.090, RSMo;
(2) ‘Steal’, to appropriate by exercising dominion over property in a manner inconsistent with the rights of the owner, . .
Section 560.161, RSMo Supp.1975: “Penalties for stealing — fourth offense.
1. Any person convicted of stealing as provided in subsection 2 of section 560.156 shall be punished as follows:
(1) If the value of the property stolen is less than fifty dollars, unless otherwise provided herein, by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars or by confinement in the county jail for not more than one year or by both such fine and confinement;
(2) If the value of the property stolen is at least fifty dollars, by imprisonment by the division of corrections for not more than ten years nor less than two years, or by confinement in the county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and confinement.
2. The offense defined in subsection 2 of section 560.156 is deemed a felony regardless of the value of the property stolen and a person convicted shall be punished as provided in subdivision (2) of subsection 1, if the property intentionally stolen: (1) Is taken from . . . a person; . . . ”
These statutes were repealed effective January 1, 1979, and supplanted by the new Criminal Code. 1977 Mo.Laws p. 662.
. Stealing from the person, traditionally held to be a lesser included offense of robbery, State v. Gardner, 356 Mo. 1015, 204 S.W.2d 716 (1947), requires no proof of specific value other than proof that the property taken is of some value. This crime encompasses the taking of property “off of’ the person or within the zone of the victim’s control. See State v. Jones, 499 S.W.2d 236, 240 (Mo.App.1973). Such crime, stealing from the person, contains all the elements necessary to sustain a conviction of stealing over $50 because it requires proof of the elements of taking property of another for value. It also contains the additional element of taking from the person or his zone of control.