Appeal by defendant from a judgment signed 20 September 2002
by Judge Thomas D. Haigwood in Pitt County Superior Court. Heard
in the Court of Appeals 19 April 2005.
Adrian M. Lapas for defendant-appellant.
BRYANT, Judge.
*** Converted from WordPerfect ***
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
v. Pitt County
Nos. 02 CRS 1596, 01 CRS 59405
TYRONE MAURICE BATTS,
Defendant.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General Q.
Shant. Martin, for the State.
Tyrone Maurice Batts (defendant) appeals from a judgment
signed 20 September 2002 following a jury verdict finding defendant
guilty of felony breaking and entering, felony larceny and
misdemeanor injury to personal property and habitual felon status.
The State's evidence tended to show on 4 August 2001, at
approximately 7:20 a.m., Detective Scott Staton saw defendant
walking down Evans Street in Greenville, N.C. with stereo equipment
and a briefcase in his hand.
He was
approximately twenty to thirty
feet from the curb at Nicky Harris' address.
Detective Statonapproached defendant and after defendant identified himself,
Detective Staton inquired about the items defendant was carrying.
Detective Staton identified one piece of equipment as an MP3
player/Sony Mini-Disk Player. Defendant told Detective Staton he
had purchased the equipment two days prior on the street in
exchange for sixty-five dollars worth of drugs. Based on this
statement, Detective Staton suspected the items were stolen and
took them to the police department for examination. The items
Detective Staton took from defendant were a CD player, a Sony
Mini-Disk player, and some sort of control box, which controls
lights so it will blink to the music. The control box, also
described by Detective Staton as a light and sound audio mixer, was
inside the briefcase defendant was carrying and had Harris' name on
it, with a note to Harris contained therein. At Harris' residence,
Detective Staton discovered Harris' trailer had a broken lock,
scratch marks near the locks, and there was a hacksaw on the ground
next to the trailer.
Detective Staton notified Harris of the
trailer's condition.
At the police station, Harris identified the
items
found in defendant's possession as his property and estimated
the fair market value of the property was $1,300.00. Defendant
presented no evidence.
In considering a motion to dismiss,
our Supreme Court has
held:
In reviewing challenges to the sufficiency of
evidence, [the court] must view the evidence
in the light most favorable to the State,
giving the State the benefit of all reasonable
inferences. Contradictions and discrepancies
do not warrant dismissal of the case but are
for the jury to resolve.
. . .
Once the court decides that a reasonable
inference of defendant's guilt may be drawn
from the circumstances, then it is for the
jury to decide whether the facts, taken singly
or in combination, satisfy [it] beyond a
reasonable doubt that the defendant is
actually guilty.
. . .
In addition, the defendant's evidence should
be disregarded unless it is favorable to the
State or does not conflict with the State's
evidence. The defendant's evidence that does
not conflict may be used to explain or clarify
the evidence offered by the State. When ruling
on a motion to dismiss, the trial court should
be concerned only about whether the evidence
is sufficient for jury consideration, not
about the weight of the evidence.
State v. Scott, 356 N.C. 591, 596-97, 573 S.E.2d 866, 869
(citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted)
, cert.
denied, 537 U.S. 833, 154 L. Ed. 2d 50 (2002).
The essential
elements of felonious breaking or entering are (1) the breaking or
entering (2) of any building (3) with the intent to commit any
felony or larceny therein. State v. Friend, 164 N.C. App. 430,
438, 596 S.E.2d 275, 281 (2004); State v. Litchford, 78 N.C. App.
722, 725, 338 S.E.2d 575, 577 (1986).
In the instant case we find the State presented sufficient
evidence to withstand defendant's motion to dismiss. Defendant
contends that a trailer is not a building within the meaning of
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-54(a). Building is defined as any
dwelling, dwelling house, uninhabited house, building under
construction, building within the curtilage of a dwelling house,
and any other structure designed to house or secure within it any
activity or property. N.C. Gen. Stat. . 14-54(c) (2003) (emphasisadded). N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-56 provides [i]f any person, with
intent to commit any felony or larceny therein, breaks or enters
any railroad car, motor vehicle, trailer, aircraft, boat, or other
watercraft of any kind, . . . that person is guilty of a Class I
felony. N.C.G.S. § 14-56
(2003).
Here, defendant
was indicted
for breaking and entering Harris'
trailer, which was used to store and transport musical equipment.
Under N.C.G.S. §
14-54, trailers
may qualify as buildings
under
various circumstances. N.C.G.S. §
14-54
(2003); See State v. Bost,
55 N.C. App. 612, 615, 286 S.E.2d 632, 634, disc. rev. denied, 305
N.C. 588, 292 S.E.2d 572 (1982).
In Bost
this Court held that
whether a trailer qualified as a building under N.C.G.S. §
14-54
would depend upon the particular circumstances in each individual
case.
Bost at 616, 286 S.E.2d at 635.
They may qualify as
'buildings' if under the circumstances of their use and location at
the time in question they have lost their character of mobility and
have attained a character of permanence. Id. at 615, 286 S.E.2d
at 634 (emphasis added).
Defendant contends Harris' trailer is not a building, that it
did not have characteristics of permanence because the victim used
his trailer to transport his musical equipment to different
locations, because the trailer was not blocked up, because the
trailer did not have flat tires, because the trailer could bereadily moved, and because the State produced no evidence to show
that the trailer remained stationary for weeks or months. We
reject defendant's contentions as the evidence taken in the light
most favorable to the State established the trailer was a
permanent, locked storage facility for Harris' equipment.
Although defendant attempted to distinguish the circumstances
in Bost from the case at bar, the circumstances in Bost are
analogous here. In Bost, a trailer on a construction site was used
to store tools and equipment while a bridge was being built. Bost
at 614, 286 S.E.2d at 634. The Court, while acknowledging the
reasonable inference that the trailer on the construction site was
mobile because it was moved from one construction site to another,
nevertheless determined the construction trailer was not being
used and not intended to be used by the owner primarily to haul
goods and personal property from place to place. Bost at 615, 286
S.E.2d at 634. The Court also stated it is clear that a trailer
is a structure designed to secure property within and thus could be
a 'building' within the meaning of N.C.G.S. § 14-54. Id.
In the instant case, Harris testified his trailer remains
primarily at his residence until he has to perform with his band.
He uses the trailer to store electronic music equipment and secures
it with a lock until needed.
Therefore, based on the reasoning of
Bost, Harris' trailer had lost its character of mobility and hadattained a character of permanence at the time of the breaking and
entering. See, e.g., Bost at 615, 286 S.E.2d at 634.
Because
, the
State presented sufficient evidence as to the trailer's use (a
storage facility for personal property) and character of permanence
such that a rational juror could conclude that the trailer was a
building within the meaning of N.C.G.S. . 14-54, the trial court
properly denied defendant's motion to dismiss the charge of felony
breaking and entering. This assignment of error is overruled.
Our Supreme Court has held:
Two lines of cases have developed regarding
the use of disjunctive jury instructions.
State v. Diaz stands for the proposition that
a disjunctive instruction, which allows the
jury to find a defendant guilty if he commits
either of two underlying acts, either of which
is in itself a separate offense, is fatally
ambiguous because it is impossible to
determine whether the jury unanimously found
that the defendant committed one particular
offense.
In such cases, the focus is on the
conduct of the defendant.
In contrast, this
Court has recognized a second line of cases
standing for the proposition that 'if the
trial court merely instructs the jury
disjunctively as to various alternative acts
which will establish an element of the
offense, the requirement of unanimity is
satisfied.' In this type of case, the focus ison the intent or purpose of the defendant
instead of his conduct. The present case falls
into the Hartness line of cases.
State v. Bell, 359 N.C. 1, 29-30, 603 S.E.2d 93, 112-13 (2004)
(citations omitted) (emphasis supplied in original), cert. denied,
___ U.S. ___, 161 L. Ed. 2d 1094, 125 S. Ct. 2299 (2005).
In State v. Hartness, our Supreme Court upheld a trial court's
jury instruction where the trial court provided two methods by
which the jury could convict the defendant of an indecent liberty.
State v. Hartness, 326 N.C. 561, 391 S.E.2d 177 (1990). The Court
in Hartness held the crime of indecent liberties is a single
offense which may be proved by evidence of the commission of any
one of a number of acts. Id. at 567, 391 S.E.2d at 180.
Likewise, in the present case, the crime of felonious larceny is a
single offense which may be proved by evidence of the larceny being
committed pursuant to a breaking or entering or by evidence that
there is a larceny of goods valued at more than $1,000.00. See
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-72 (2003).
Defendant acknowledges that under Hartness, if . . .
defendant is found guilty by the jury of the felony breaking or
entering, an instruction [on felonious larceny] in the disjunctive
that either act, larceny after the breaking or entering or larceny
of goods over $1,000.00, will satisfy the elements of the offense.
The trial court in this case instructed the jury on feloniouslarceny as follows:
Now, I charge for you to find the Defendant
guilty of felonious larceny the State must
prove six things beyond a reasonable doubt.
First, that the Defendant took property
belonging to another person. Second, that the
Defendant carried away the property. Third,
that the victim did not consent to the taking
and carrying away of the property. Four, that
at the time of the taking the Defendant
intended to deprive the victim of its use
permanently. Fifth, that the Defendant knew
that he was not entitled to take the property.
Six, either that the property was taken from a
building after a breaking or entering or the
property was worth more than $1,000.
This instruction is sufficient to survive defendant's unanimity
challenge as to felony larceny. See State v. Galloway, 145 N.C.
App. 555, 568, 551 S.E.2d 525, 534 (2001) (citation omitted)
([I]f
the trial court merely instructs the jury disjunctively as to
various alternative acts which will establish an element of the
offense, the requirement of unanimity is satisfied.)
.
However, defendant further argues the breaking and entering
charge was not supported by the evidence and there is no way to
know whether some or all of the jurors relied upon this improper
submission to support its verdict of felony larceny, thereby
depriving defendant of his right to a unanimous jury verdict.
Contrary to defendant's assertion, the State did produce
substantial evidence of breaking and entering under N.C.G.S. §
14-54, so that jury submission was proper. See Issue I, supra.
This assignment of error is overruled.
In order for a variance to warrant reversal, the variance must
be material. State v. Norman, 149 N.C. App. 588, 594, 562 S.E.2d
453, 457 (2002) (citation omitted). A variance is not material,
and is therefore not fatal, if it does not involve an essential
element of the crime charged. Id.; see also State v. Dawkins, 164
N.C. App. 780, 596 S.E.2d 906 (2004) (unpublished) ([f]or th[e]
variance to be fatal, the precise identity of the personal property
must be an essential element of the crime). Whether the
description of property in a larceny indictment is sufficient or so
defective as to be void depends on whether the property alleged to
have been taken is described with 'reasonable certainty.' State
v. Boomer, 33 N.C. App. 324, 329, 235 S.E.2d 284, 287, cert.
denied, 293 N.C. 254, 237 S.E.2d 536 (1977). Reasonable certainty
is attained when the description reasonably informs the accused of
the transaction meant, when it protects the accused in the event of
subsequent prosecutions for the same offense, when it enables the
court to see that the property described is the subject of larceny,
and when it enables the jury to say that the article proved to bestolen is the same as the one described. Id. at 329-30, 235
S.E.2d 287-88.
Defendant argues the State produced no evidence he stole a
mixing board, a drum machine, and a bass guitar, although the
indictment alleges he had stolen these items. Contrary to
defendant's allegation, evidence produced at trial indicated that
mixing board, light and sound mixer, control box, and NSI
controlled computer
used to make . . . the lights blink to the
music, were all multiple descriptions of the same item and
referred to as a mixing board in the indictment
.
Here, Harris
testified he was missing a mixer, a bass guitar, and a drum
machine. Detective Staton recovered a light and sound mixer, a
Mini-Disk player, and CD player from defendant all of which Harris
identified as his property from his trailer. Based on the evidence
presented, there was no material variance between the evidence and
the indictment.
This assignment of error is overruled.
Where an indictment sets forth conjunctively two means by
which the crime charged may have been committed, there is no fatal
variance between indictment and proof when the state offersevidence supporting only one of the means charged. State v.
Rawlins, 166 N.C. App. 160, 163, 601 S.E.2d 267, 270 (2004)
(quotation omitted).
The indictment in the present case charged
that defendant
unlawfully, willfully and feloniously did steal, take and carry
away . . . the personal property of [the victim], having a value of
Two Thousand Fifty Dollars ($2,050.00), pursuant to the commission
of felonious breaking and entering.
Here, the State offered
evidence to support two theories by which defendant could commit
felony larceny
- taking property with a value greater than
$1,000.00 or committing a larceny after breaking and entering a
building. The evidence presented was sufficient to support either
theory to prove defendant committed the single offense of felony
larceny. Therefore, we find there is no fatal variance between the
allegations in the indictment and the proof at trial. Accordingly,
and for the reasons stated in Issue II above, this assignment of
error is overruled.
No error.
Judges WYNN and JACKSON concur.
Report per Rule 30(e).