Mays v. State
Mays v. State
Opinion of the Court
Appellants were charged with automobile banditry and with being habitual criminals and were convicted after a trial by the court of automobile banditry and acquitted on the habitual criminal charges. They have taken a belated appeal to this court.
Under appellants’ first assigned error that the court erred in overruling their several motions for new trial, appellants contend on this appeal that the evidence was insufficient to support their convictions of automobile banditry.
Appellants, in their brief, admit that the evidence most favorable to appellee, showed that appellants “went over an embankment in the back of the building [which was burglarized], travelled 20 or 30 feet, obtained a part of a crate, and then both appellants allegedly climbed through the broken pane of a window 24 inches square, cross the garage area, entered into an office, obtained tools from the garage, as well as a hand cart, and took from the office a safe that was anchored to the floor by an iron rod, put it on a cart, pushed it back into the garage area, and then both appellants went back out through the small pane of glass, back over the 20 or 30 feet up the embankment in a period of 20 or 30 minutes.” The evidence then shows they ran about a block until they entered a parked car occupied by the co-defendant Freeman,
Appellants contend that it would be highly improbable or even physically impossible for appellants, who were over 30 years of age, to crawl through such a window, perform all the acts contended by appellee and return in such a short period of time as 20 to 30 minutes, and that proof beyond a reasonable doubt was not therefore shown.
There is no question but that much of the evidence in this case was circumstantial, but the evidence favorable to appellee, admitted by appellants, and heretofore set out, in our opinion, was sufficient to show the felonious breaking and entering of the premises with intent to commit larceny, as alleged in the affidavit. Its weight and sufficiency were a matter for the trier of the facts, and there is no logical basis for appellants’ contention that appellants could not reasonably have entered a window two feet square and committed the entire burglary within a period of 20 to 30 minutes. The evidence that appellants thereafter ran to the automobile, occupied by the co-defendant Freeman, which they had parked near the scene prior to the burglary, and were in the process of driving off when closed in on by the officers, sufficiently shows their use of an automobile for the purpose of an escape after the commission of the felony. See: Mims v. State (1957), 236 Ind. 439, 140 N. E. 2d 878; Roark, Holcomb v. State (1955), 234 Ind. 615, 130 N. E. 2d 326; Chizum v. State (1932), 203 Ind. 450, 180 N. E. 674; Sullivan v. State (1940), 217 Ind. 259, 27 N. E. 2d. 760; Steffler v. State (1952), 230 Ind. 557, 104 N. E. 2d 729.
Other questions discussed by appellants in their briefs have not been included in the assignment of errors or the motions for new trial and therefore no question as to them is before us for decision.
Finding no error, the judgment is affirmed.
Note. — Reported in 143 N. E. 2d 568.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Mays Anderson v. State of Indiana
- Cited By
- 1 case
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- Published