State v. OwensState v. Owens
OPINION
delivered the opinion of the court,
David L. Owens, the defendant, entered a Dollar General Store, grabbed an article of clothing, and left without making payment. Owens was chased for several blocks by two store employees. When one employee closed in, Owens dropped the clothes, turned toward the employeе, and brandished a box cutter. Owens then walked away, but he was subsequently apprehended and charged. He was convicted of robbery and sentenced to nine years in the Department of Correction. His conviction was affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals. In this Court, Owens contends that the robbery conviction is not, as a matter of law, sustainable under
I
On January 22, 1996, David L. Owens, the defendant, entered a Dollar General Store, grabbed an article of clothing, and left without making payment. Owens was chased for several blocks by a supervisor and a security guard. When the supervisor closed in, Owens dropped the article of clothing, turned toward the supervisor, brandished a box cutter, and then walked away. Hе was later apprehended by the security guard and taken into custody. He was subsequently indicted and tried upon a charge of robbery. 1
We accepted review of this case in order to determine the temporal relationship requirеd between the taking and the act of violence or putting a person in fear as they together constitute the offense of robbery defined in
After an exhaustive review of the relevant authorities, we adopt the common law rule and hold that the act of violence or of putting a person in fear must precede or be concomitant to or contemporaneous with the taking of property to constitute robbery under
II
Only a brief recitation of the facts is necessary. An employee of Dollar General Store saw Owens take an article of clothing from the store without paying. She alerted A.C. Simmons, the Dollar General Store security guard, and Derrick Mims, a store supervisor. Both Simmons and Mims gave chase on foot. They chased Owens for about a block. At this point, Simmons returned to the store to get his car, Mims continued the pursuit on foot. After several blocks, Owens stopped, dropped the article of clothing, turned towards Mims, and brandished a box cutter. Owens then walked away, leaving the clothing where it lay. Simmons, who had retrieved his car, returned to the pursuit and apprehended Owens.
A jury convicted Owens of robbery, and the trial judge sentenced him to nine years to the Department оf Correction. On appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals, he contended that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support his conviction. Finding his contention unsupportable, the intermediate appellate court upheld Owens’s conviction.
Here, Owens contends that his confrontation with Mims oсcurred after the taking had occurred; thus, the taking had not been accomplished by violence or fear. He insists, therefore, that this conduct does not constitute robbery under
Ill
As stated, robbery requires a taking of property by violence or by putting the person in fеar. Our first question is how closely connected in time must the taking and the violence be? Because this question is one of law, our review is de novo, without a presumption of correctness as to the lower court’s conclusions of law.
See Myint v. Allstate Ins. Co.,
In Tennessee, a “[r]obbery is the intentional or knowing theft of property from the рerson of another by violence or putting the person in fear.”
For common law robbery,
2
the force
3
used in the taking of property must “precede or be concomitant or contemporaneous with the taking. Violence or intimidation by the thief
subsequent to the taking
will not render the act robbery.”
State v. Aldershof,
Many jurisdictions, however, have rejected the сommon law rule in favor of the “continuous offense theory.”
7
These jurisdictions interpret robbery as a continuous offense “that is not complete until the
Although a majority of jurisdictions have adopted the continuous offense theory, an overwhelming majority have done so with the help of statutes which specifically define robbery to include the use of force to retain property or to escape.
8
For example, under many of these statutory provisions a person commits a robbery if he or she uses force “in the course of committing” a theft.
Reviewing
We have also compared
Because we are required by the General Assembly to construe
Having determined the proper rule of law, we must next determine whether the evidence is suffiсient to support Owens’s conviction of robbery. In determining evidentiary sufficiency, we ask “whether, after considering the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
State v. Hall,
Here, Owens took an article of clothing from Dollar General Store without paying and fled. After having run for at least five blocks, he stopped, drоpped the clothes, turned towards Mims (who had given chase), and brandished a box cutter. This evidence is not sufficient to establish violence or fear preceding or contemporaneous with the taking of property. Indeed, in this case, the use of violence or fear was subsequent to the taking and tempоrally remote. Accordingly, there is insufficient evidence in the record to support Owens’s conviction of robbery. There is, however, ample evidence in the record to support a conviction for theft under
IV
For the reasons articulated above, Owens’s conviction for robbery under
Costs of this appeal are assessed to the State of Tennessee.
Notes
.
. The common law generally defined robbery as " 'the felonious taking, from the person of another, goods or money of any value, by violence or putting in fear.’ "
Crews & Crenshaw v. State,
. We recently determined that " ‘force’ and ‘violence,’ while obviously related, are not synonymous and were not intended to be used interchangeably under our legislative scheme.”
State v. Fitz,
.
See Mason v. Commonwealth,
.
See, e.g., State v. Bateson,
.
See, e.g.,
.
See, e.g., Ball
v.
State,
.
See, e.g.,
.
See
.
See
.
.
See, e.g.,
.
See Westland West Community Ass’n v. Knox County,
.
See Town of Mount Carmel v. City of Kingsport,
.
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