Boyle v. State, 5915
| Decision Date | 22 January 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 5915,5915 |
| Citation | 86 Nev. 30,464 P.2d 493 |
| Parties | Marvin Dean BOYLE, Appellant, v. The STATE of Nevada, Respondent. |
| Court | Nevada Supreme Court |
James D. Santini, Public Defender and H. Leon Simon, Deputy Public Defender, Las Vegas, for appellant.
Harvey Dickerson, Atty. Gen., Carson City, George E. Franklin, Jr., Dist. Atty., and Richard D. Weisbart, Deputy Dist. Atty., Las Vegas, for respondent.
After a jury trial appellant Marvin Dean Boyle was convicted of violating NRS 205.065, the crime of burglary.
In the course of his instructions the trial court informed the jury in the language of the statute which states that one who unlawfully enters a building is deemed to have entered with the intent to commit larceny unless such 'unlawful entry shall be explained by testimony satisfactory to the jury to have been made without criminal intent.' 1
Boyle was caught coming out of a building just past midnight on the morning of September 2, 1968 by two sheriff deputies who were checking the doors of the warehouse on Highland Avenue in Las Vegas. They had discovered that the front window on the door to one of the offices had been smashed and focused their automobile headlights on the door. After summoning help, one of the officers saw Boyle's head peep out from the rear door, look both ways, then start out. He was immediately arrested. The officers found that two offices had been ransacked inside the building; one owned by Alfred E. Lee Landscaping Company for whom Boyle had worked for a short period of time about four months prior to the arrest. The office next to Lee's was also in a state of disarray. Nothing, however, in either office was missing although the cash box normally kept in the secretary's drawer of the landscaping company was on top of the desk. Boyle's excuse was that he had been drinking all day and decided to go into Lee's office for his withholding tax form and to see if any back wages were owed to him. The secretary and Lee testifying for both the prosecution and Boyle stated that Boyle had only once several months before asked for his tax statement on the day he left the employment and that no money was due him.
Boyle concedes the constitutionality of the statutory presumption 'unless such unlawful breaking and entering or unlawful entry shall be explained by testimony satisfactory to the jury.' White v. State, 83 Nev. 292, 295, 429 P.2d 55, 57 (1967); Schnepp v. State, 82 Nev. 257, 261, 415 P.2d 619 (1966); McNeeley v. State, 81 Nev. 663, 667, 409 P.2d 135 (1965); cf. United States v. Gainey, 380 U.S. 63, 70, 85 S.Ct. 754, 13 L.Ed.2d 658 (1965); Johnson v. United States, 255 A.2d 494 (D.C.App.1969). His contention now is that having denied an intention to steal the presumption has been negated because there is no evidence other than the presumption to prove intent to commit larceny.
To the contrary, the jury is not...
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Tucker v. State
...have rejected it. Fritz v. State, 86 Nev. 655, 474 P.2d 377 (1970); McGuire v. State, 86 Nev. 262, 468 P.2d 12 (1970); Boyle v. State, 86 Nev. 30, 464 P.2d 493 (1970); White v. State, 83 Nev. 292, 429 P.2d 55 (1967); Schnepp v. State, 82 Nev. 257, 415 P.2d 619 (1966). We are not persuaded t......
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Larsen v. State, 5940
...or a felony therein,' unless the defendant can convince the jury that it was done without criminal intent. See also Boyle v. State, 86 Nev. ---, 464 P.2d 493 (1970). In Mathis v. State, 82 Nev. 402, 406, 419 P.2d 775, 776 (1966), quoting from State v. Thompson, 31 Nev. 209, 216, 101 P. 557 ......
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Fritz v. State
...of the jury and not this court to weigh the evidence. McGuire v. State, 86 Nev. 262, 468 P.2d 12 (1970). Furthermore, in Boyle v. State, 86 Nev. 30, 464 P.2d 493 (1970), we said: '* * * (T)he jury is not compelled to accept solely his denial of intent to commit the larceny but rather can pe......