State v. Richardson
| Decision Date | 11 October 1939 |
| Docket Number | No. 74.,74. |
| Citation | 216 n.c. 304,4 S.E.2d 852 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE. v. RICHARDSON. |
Appeal from Superior Court, Nash County; C. E. Thompson, Judge.
Willie Richardson was convicted of burglary of first degree and he appeals. No error.
Criminal prosecution tried upon indictment charging the defendant with burglary in the first degree.
Verdict: Guilty of burglary in the first degree.
Judgment: Death by asphyxiation.
The defendant appeals, assigning errors.
O. B. Moss, of Spring Hope, and N. M. Batchelor, of Nashville, for appellant.
Harry M. McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton and George B. Patton, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.
It is in evidence that on the night of 10 February, 1939, the defendant entered the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Butler, Rocky Mount, N. C, which was occupied at the time by Mrs. Butler, with intent the goods and chattels of the owners therein feloniously to steal. Upon the discovery of defendant's presence in the house, which was made known to him, he engaged Mrs. Butler in an altercation and escaped through the kitchen door. It was later found that he had taken a pocket book and a package of cigarettes from the living room. On 16 February, following the arrest of the defendant, he confessed to entering the Butler home on the night in question, taking a lady's pocket book which he threw away as he found no money in it, and a package of Chesterfield cigarettes which he carried home with him. The empty pocket book was found in the yard of the Butler home and the cigarettes in the home of the defendant.
The point is made arguendo on demurrer to the evidence, that as the value of the goods stolen is less than $20, or not shown to be more than this amount, the evidence fails to make out a case of burglary in the first degree. State v. Morris, 215 N.C. 552, 2 S.E.2d 554. It was said in State v. Spain, 201 N.C. 571, 160 S.E. 825, that the value of the goods stolen was not material on an indictment for burglary, the statute, C.S. § 4251, dividing larceny in two degrees, the one a misdemeanor and the other a felony, having, by its terms, no application to a charge of this kind. The argument is unavailing. State v. Shuford, 152 N.C. 809, 67 S.E. 923.
The defendant objects to the introduction in evidence of an alleged confession or statements made by him to the State's witnesses on the ground that he was in the Penitentiary at the time. He did not ask that its voluntariness be determined before its introduction. State v. Alston, 215 N.C. 713, 3 S.E.2d 11. This, however, might not have been fatal to his objection, had the involuntariness of the confession appeared from the State's evidence, which it does not. State v. Anderson, 208 N.C. 771, 182 S.E. 643. Unless challenged, the voluntariness of a confession will be taken for granted. State v. Sanders, 84 N.C. 728, 729. Ordinarily a confession is to be regarded as prima facie voluntary and admissible in evidence. State v. Moore, 210 N.C. 686, ...
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