State v. Faatea
| Decision Date | 21 July 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 7875,7875 |
| Citation | 648 P.2d 197,65 Haw. 156 |
| Parties | STATE of Hawaii, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Vili Salua FAATEA, also known as Joe Sefo, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
Robbery is simply an aggravated form of theft and where, on the facts, there is but one act of theft, from a single owner, a defendant could only be convicted and sentenced for but one robbery offense.
Edmund K. U. Yee, Honolulu (Yamamoto & Yee, Honolulu, of counsel), for defendant-appellant.
Peter B. Carlisle, Deputy Pros. Atty., Honolulu, for plaintiff-appellee.
Before RICHARDSON, C. J., NAKAMURA, J., MARUMOTO, Retired Justice, assigned in place of LUM, J., excused, and OGATA and MENOR, Retired Justices, assigned temporarily.
The defendant Vili Salua Faatea was convicted of five counts of robbery in the first degree pursuant to HRS § 708-840(1)(b)(ii). He was sentenced to an extended prison term of life without the possibility of parole for a period of ten years based on the trial court's finding that the defendant was a multiple offender. He appeals.
The facts of this case are not in dispute. On the morning of September 17, 1979, the defendant and a companion entered the accounting office of the Ramada Inn. Among those present in the office at that time were Carleton E. Hardin, Jr., assistant manager at the Ramada Inn; Clarence P. Palenapa, front desk clerk; Emma Keawe-Aiko, accounting clerk; Teresa M. McGraw, senior accountant; and Patricia K. Utz, director of personnel. The defendant pointed a gun at Hardin's head and said, The people were warned to stay down on the floor or their heads would be "blown off." The two escaped with the hotel's weekend receipts and a box containing petty cash. The total amount of money taken was approximately $25,000. The defendant was charged in a five-count indictment with robbing each of the foregoing individuals.
On this appeal, the defendant contends that he was erroneously prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced for multiple counts of robbery based on the single incident described above. The robbery statute under which he was charged provides as follows:
§ 708-840 Robbery in the first degree.
(1) A person commits the offense of robbery in the first degree if, in the course of committing a theft:
(b) He is armed with a dangerous instrument and:
(ii) He threatens the imminent use of force against the person of anyone who is present with intent to compel acquiescence to the taking of or escaping with the property.
The State contends that the phrase "threatens the imminent use of force against the person of anyone who is present" justifies the multiple-count indictment and conviction returned against the accused. The defendant, on the other hand, argues that in order for an incident to give rise to multiple-count robbery convictions, there must exist multiple thefts and not just multiple aggravating circumstances. He points out that all the money asked for and taken belonged to Ramada Inn and that none of the five people threatened in separate counts of the indictment was asked for or gave up his personal property.
This court has held that robbery is merely an aggravated form of theft, State v. Brighter, 62 Haw. 25, 608 P.2d 855 (1980), and inasmuch as there was but one act of theft here, from one owner, we are constrained to hold that the defendant could be convicted and sentenced for but one robbery offense. The theft was of Ramada Inn property, and each of the five employees named were simply custodians of the property for the benefit of their employer. The threatened use of force was directed against all five for the purpose of effectuating the unlawful taking of their employer's property. It was this threat which converted the taking from theft to robbery. Thus, there was only one aggravated theft (robbery) for which a sentence could be imposed.
We note that other courts have reached the...
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State v. Collins
...285 N.C. at 253, 204 S.E.2d at 649. See also State v. Ballard, 280 N.C. 479, 186 S.E.2d 372 (1972). Finally, in State v. Faatea, 65 Hawaii 156, 648 P.2d 197 (1982), the Supreme Court of Hawaii held that there was only one robbery when the defendant and a companion entered a Ramada Inn accou......
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People v. Borghesi
...v. Wakeford, 418 Mich. 95, 341 N.W.2d 68, 75-6 (1983); United States v. Canty, 469 F.2d 114, 126 (D.C.Cir.1972); State v. Faatea, 65 Haw. 156, 648 P.2d 197, 198 (1982); State v. Perkins, 45 Or.App. 91, 607 P.2d 1202, 1205 (1980); Rogers v. State, 272 Ind. 65, 396 N.E.2d 348, 355 (1979); Sta......
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State v. Tvedt
...conviction can result where the defendant did not take or intend to take property individually from each person); State v. Faatea, 65 Haw. 156, 648 P.2d 197 (1982) (five employees ordered at gunpoint to lie on the floor and threatened with having their heads "blown off" while defendant and ......
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Facon v. State
...(1984) (viewing robbery as "an aggravated form of larceny" and concluding that offense is a single larceny); see also State v. Faatea, 65 Haw. 156, 648 P.2d 197 (1982); State v. Perkins, 45 Or.App. 91, 607 P.2d 1202 (1980); State v. Johnson, 48 Wash.App. 531, 740 P.2d 337 As Borchardt unequ......