State v. McDaniel
| Decision Date | 30 June 1864 |
| Citation | 60 N.C. 245,1 Win. 249 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | THE STATE v. WESLEY McDANIEL. |
If a man breaks and enters into a dwelling house by night with intent to commit a felony, the crime of burglary is consummated, though after entering the house he desists from an attempt to commit the felony, through fear or because he is resisted.
The intent to commit a felony may appear from antecedent circumstances, and if there be a forcible entry into the house in the night, the intent so appearing, it is burglary.
This was an indictment for burglariously breaking and entering a dwelling house with intent to commit a rape, tried before French, Judge, at Spring Term, 1864, of Montgomery Superior Court.
Mary Boyd, the prosecutrix, testified that in the month of August last, about one or two hours before day, she was asleep in the house of her sister-in-law, in Montgomery County, and was waked by the noise of some one throwing something against the door and window; she got up and found the prisoner at the window, she asked him what he wanted? he answered, “something good,” and got down from the window and went to the back door and broke it open, entered the house, struck her violently with a water bucket, placed his hands across her breast and threw her down. She resisted as far as she was able. A child of her sister, about nine years of age, struck at the prisoner with a stick, and the witness called to him to go to a neighbor's for help. As the child went off, the prisoner got off the person of the witness and left the house. The prisoner did not, when he first laid hands on her, or after he had thrown her down, attempt to raise her dress.
One witness testified that the prisoner was between sixteen and seventeen years of age. Another, that he was between eighteen and nineteen. There was other evidence on the part of the State in confirmation of the testimony of the prosecutrix.
The prisoner is a free negro.
The Court presented to the jury the testimony on the part of the State and prisoner, and instructed them on the law, to which instructions no exemption was made.
The counsel for the prisoner requested the Court to instruct the jury, that although they were satisfied from the evidence that the prisoner broke and entered into the dwelling house in the night time, with the intent to commit a rape on the prosecutrix, yet if he afterwards desisted on account of the resistance he met with, or through fear or any other cause, that the prisoner was not guilty.
The Court declined to give the instruction, and instructed the jury that if they were satisfied from the evidence that the prisoner broke and entered into the dwelling house in the night time, with the intent to commit a rape on the prosecutrix, and afterwards through resistance or fear, abandoned the intent, he was guilty. The counsel for the prisoner excepted. His counsel moved, in arrest of judgment, that the indictment charged an offence at common law, and under the statute in one and the same Court, which motion was overruled and judgment entered according to the verdict.
The indictment is as follows: The jurors for the State upon their oath present that Wesley McDaniel, being a free negro, late of the County of Montgomery, not...
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State v. Surles
...essential change in the nature of his crime, anymore than if he had desisted through fear, resistance, or because of detection. State v. McDaniel, 60 N.C. 245. It follows, therefore, that an attempt to commit burglary comes within the definition of an "infamous" offense as used in the statu......
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State v. Surles
...essential change in the nature of his crime, anymore than if he had desisted through fear, resistance, or because of detection. State v. McDaniel, 60 N.C. 245. follows, therefore, that an attempt to commit burglary comes within the definition of an 'infamous' offense as used in the statute,......
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United States v. Mullen
...is not required in order to sustain a conviction of burglary. State v. Reid, supra; State v. Hooper, 227 N.C. 633, 44 S.E.2d 42; State v. McDaniel, 60 N.C. 245. The offense of burglary is the breaking and entering with the requisite intent. It is complete when the building is entered or it ......
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State v. Wells
...after entering the house, the accused abandons his intent through fear or because he is resisted. State v. Allen, supra; State v. McDaniel, 60 N.C. 245 (1864); Accord, State v. Thorpe, 274 N.C. 457, 164 S.E.2d 171 (1968). Here, these principles were included in the trial judge's charge, to ......