Ricks v. State, 71171
| Citation | 341 S.E.2d 895,178 Ga.App. 98 |
| Decision Date | 17 February 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 71171,71171 |
| Parties | RICKS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Randall M. Clark, Brunswick, for appellant.
Glenn Thomas, Jr., Dist. Atty., John B. Johnson III, Asst. Dist. Atty., for appellee.
Ricks was convicted of burglary and appeals.
1. Appellant contends the trial court erred by denying his motion for a directed verdict of acquittal because the State failed to corroborate the testimony of an accomplice. This enumeration of error is without merit.
Clarence Parrish testified that in December 1983 he broke into the home of Mary Stevens on St. Simons Island after hearing that a large safe was in her home. Parrish did not find a safe but later learned that it might be at the residence of Mary Stevens' son, John. On March 8, 1984 Parrish, Walter Manning and appellant tricked John Stevens into leaving his home when Manning called and said he was an ambulance driver, and told John Stevens his mother had been in a serious car accident and had been taken to Savannah Memorial Hospital. When John left his house the three men broke into his home and found a large safe. Parrish attempted to cut open the safe with an acetylene torch he had obtained from appellant. Manning saw a police car driving into the residence and the three men left without getting the safe open. Parrish had driven to the house in a blue van and the other two men drove to Stevens' house in a separate truck. Manning corroborated the testimony of Parrish about the burglary of John Stevens' home and Ricks' involvement therein, except for stating that he remained outside Stevens' home while Parrish and Ricks broke into and entered the house.
When Stevens learned that his mother had not been injured he called Rick McBride, a friend, and asked him to check the house and if he saw any strange cars around to call the police. McBride saw a blue van backed into some trees by Stevens' house and called the police. When Stevens returned his home had been broken into, the safe was damaged and molten metal was on the floor by the safe.
Although appellant contends there is no corroboration of his accomplices' testimony, such testimony was corroborated by the testimony of Mary Stevens that her home had been burglarized at the time stated by Parrish; the testimony of John Stevens concerning the telephone call he received causing him to leave his house and the fact that his home was burglarized; and the testimony of McBride that he saw a blue van backed into the trees behind Stevens' home. Further, where two or more accomplices testify at the trial of an accused, the testimony of one accomplice may be corroborated by the testimony of the other accomplice. Eubanks v. State, 240 Ga. 544, 545(1), 242 S.E.2d 41 (1978). Hence, it was not error to deny appellant's motion for a directed verdict of acquittal.
2. Appellant contends the trial court erred by admitting into evidence a newspaper article which referred to appellant's previous conviction for counterfeiting.
After a State witness was shown through cross-examination to have made statements at a pretrial hearing which conflicted with his testimony at trial as to the amount of money the burglars expected to find in the safe, the defense called two newspaper reporters who testified that the witness (a police investigator) told them the burglars expected to find $250,000 in the safe. The State was subsequently allowed to introduce into evidence a newspaper article written by one of the reporters which included a statement that appellant was in Federal custody on a counterfeiting charge. Appellant contends that the exhibit improperly placed his character in issue.
While we agree that the article improperly placed appellant's character in issue, we find the error harmless under the circumstances of this case. The investigator admitted on cross-examination that his testimony at the pretrial hearing as to the amount of money the burglars expected to find was different than his testimony at trial. He explained this by stating that at the time of the pretrial hearing he had not interviewed Parrish and Manning, and after later talking to them and based on their statements, he changed his original figure of $100,000 to $250,000. Assuming, without deciding, that such testimony was contradictory, there was no need to call the reporters to impeach the investigator. Since appellant chose to call the reporters and question them as to what the investigator had told them and what was contained in the article admitted into evidence, the prosecuting attorney was...
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Moyer v. State
...An individual may be convicted of burglary regardless of whether the charged underlying felony is completed. Ricks v. State, 178 Ga.App. 98, 101(4), 341 S.E.2d 895 (1986) (burglary complete when a "person enters the dwelling house of another without authority and with intent to commit a fel......
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