Com. v. Pimental, 87-885-A

• Decision Date: 04 March 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-885-A,87-885-A
• Citation: 25 Mass.App.Ct. 971,519 N.E.2d 795
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. Carol PIMENTAL.
• Court: Appeals Court of Massachusetts

Page 795

519 N.E.2d 795

25 Mass.App.Ct. 971

COMMONWEALTH v. Carol PIMENTAL.

No. 87-885-A.

Appeals Court of Massachusetts Suffolk.

Argued Jan. 8, 1988.

Decided March 4, 1988.

Jane Larmon White, Boston, Committee for Public Counsel Services, for defendant.

Nijole Slezas, Asst. Dist. Atty., Boston, for the Com.

Before GRANT, DREBEN and FINE, JJ.

RESCRIPT.

In her appeals from her convictions of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and armed robbery, the defendant alleges error in the denial of her motion for a required finding of not guilty on each charge. The question before us on this issue is whether, under Commonwealth v. Latimore, 378 Mass. 671, 677-678, 393 N.E.2d 370 (1979), the evidence was sufficient to warrant a finding of unarmed robbery or the lesser included offense of larceny of property having a value of more than $100. ¹ She also claims error in the exclusion of certain prior inconsistent statements made by the complaining witness to policemen and alleges prosecutorial error in counsel's final argument. We reverse the conviction of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and conclude that the evidence presented at trial warranted only a conviction on so much of the armed robbery indictment as charged larceny.

1. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, the jury could have found the following facts. The victim was the owner of an expensive 1983 Thunderbird sports car "loaded with every option" which, at the time of the incident, was valued at $16,000.

On the night of April 27, 1983, the victim, having had four or five drinks at two bars, drove to a sandwich shop, and parked in front of it. The area was well lighted. The victim noticed a man and a woman, whom he later identified as the defendant and the codefendant, ² talking at the corner; "something was said" by the woman at the time the victim entered the sandwich shop, but he "didn't pay attention." When he came out of the shop after fifteen minutes, the man and the woman were still standing outside. The victim got into his vehicle, and the woman came over saying she needed a ride "over by the Colonnade." At first the victim refused to take her but finally acceded to her request. He drove to the Colonnade, but when they reached it, the woman wanted to go a bit farther.

She gave the victim directions, and, after passing an intersection with a light, they stopped. The woman "said she wasn't sure. She was a little confused." They stopped several times, usually after an intersection with a light. After about the third stop, the victim became "a little bit uptight" and told the woman she should take a cab. He offered her twenty dollars to cover the cab fare. When they finally arrived at the woman's destination, she invited him inside, saying, "We'll have a great time and we'll drive down to the Cape tomorrow." The victim declined her offer. She tried to persuade him.

After about eight to ten minutes, he saw the man who had been with the woman outside the sandwich shop drive up in a light blue car and take "a right just before us." The man reappeared, entered the victim's automobile on the passenger side, and sat swivelled on the bucket seat, facing the victim. The three talked for a few minutes. When the victim stated it was getting late and that he had to leave, the man "lunged over and stabbed" the victim. The man tried to stab the victim again, but the latter managed to roll out of the vehicle. According to the victim, the woman screamed at the man, "What were you doing. What's this all about." The man drove off in the victim's automobile with the woman in the front seat.

The victim went to a nearby house, the police were called, and the victim spent a day and a half at a hospital. Some days later, from books containing many photographs, the victim identified both the woman and the man.

Although the question is close, we think the evidence permitted the inference that the defendant and the co-defendant, on seeing the fancy car and a driver who had had a few drinks, made plans to relieve him permanently of his car. The defendant's actions in persuading the victim to drive her to some undefined place, stopping three or four times after traffic lights, and trying to induce the victim to accompany her and leave the vehicle in a place where her accomplice could drive it away warranted a finding that the defendant, together with the codefendant, intended (and ultimately did commit) larceny. "Larceny is the unlawful taking and carrying away of the personal property of another with the specific intent to deprive the person of the property permanently." Commonwealth v. Johnson, 379 Mass. 177, 181, 396 N.E.2d 974 (1979).

Although the Commonwealth argues that there was enough evidence for the jury, on a joint enterprise theory, to find robbery, we disagree. "Robbery includes all the elements of larceny and in addition requires that force and violence be used against the...