State v. Warner, 37801
| Decision Date | 15 October 1971 |
| Docket Number | No. 37801,37801 |
| Citation | 187 Neb. 335,190 N.W.2d 786 |
| Parties | STATE of Nebraska, Appellee, v. Ronald E. WARNER, Appellant. |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. It is not the province of the Supreme Court to pass on the credibility of witnesses or weigh the evidence in a criminal case.
2. The possibility that a stolen truck might be abandoned later is not a defense to a charge of auto theft.
3. A trailer which is used as an office may be the subject of a burglary under section 28--532, R.R.S.1943.
4. In the absence of a request, the trial court is not required to instruct in regard to lesser included offenses.
Frank B. Morrison, Public Defender, Bennett G. Hornstein, Asst. Public Defender, Omaha, for appellant.
Clarence A. H. Meyer, Atty. Gen., Harold S. Salter, Deputy Atty. Gen., Lincoln, for appellee.
Heard before WHITE, C.J., and SPENCER, BOSLAUGH, SMITH, McCOWN, NEWTON, and CLINTON, JJ.
The defendant appeals from convictions for burglary and auto theft. His principal assignments of error relate to the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the convictions on each charge.
There was evidence from which the jury could find that the office of the Delight Wholesale Company in Omaha, Nebraska, was burglarized at about 2 a.m., on September 1, 1969, and a safe carried away in a 1959 pickup truck stolen from Dwight Godden. The office was equipped with a security alarm which resulted in the police being notified promptly of the break-in.
At 2:17 a.m., a police officer observed the Godden truck traveling north on Thirty-third Street near Lake Street with its headlights turned off and the safe in the back of the truck. The truck was found parked in front of 3224 Willis Avenue a few minutes later. As the police approached, the defendant ran from the left side of the truck. The defendant was then apprehended and taken to the police station.
The truck had been 'hot wired' so that it could be operated without an ignition key. A guitar that had been taken from the office of the Delight Wholesale Company was found in the back of the truck, and a pry bar was lying on the right running board. The pry bar fitted into the marks that had been made where the door at the Delight Wholesale Company had been forced.
The evidence which has been summarized, although circumstantial, was sufficient for the jury to find that the defendant had participated in the theft of the Godden truck and the burglary at the Delight Wholesale Company. It is not the province of this court to pass on the credibility of witnesses or weigh the evidence in a criminal case.
The circumstances indicate that the truck was stolen for the purpose of transporting the safe which was interrupted when the police happened to see the truck with the safe at...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Smith
...767 (1977); State v. Bell, 194 Neb. 554, 233 N.W.2d 920 (1975); State v. Maxwell, 193 Neb. 807, 229 N.W.2d 195 (1975); State v. Warner, 187 Neb. 335, 190 N.W.2d 786 (1971); State v. Caha, 184 Neb. 70, 165 N.W.2d 362 (1969); Guerin v. State, 138 Neb. 724, 295 N.W. 274 (1940); Haynes v. State......
-
State v. Scilagyi
...airplane, or other vehicle or structure" where any person lives or carries on a business. § 569.010(2)(a), p. 692. In State v. Warner, 187 Neb. 335, 190 N.W.2d 786 (1971), the structure involved was a 60-foot trailer which had been divided into three offices and a cashier's cage. "A fiber g......
-
State v. Bell, 39943
...required to instruct in regard to lesser included offenses.' State v. Maxwell, 193 Neb. 807, 229 N.W.2d 195. See, also, State v. Warner, 187 Neb. 335, 190 N.W.2d 786. The second assignment of error presents a proposition on which the authorities are divided. We have said, in regard to larce......
-
State v. Blotzer
...abandonment at a distant place presents a question for the jury as to whether there was an intent to keep wrongfully. See State v. Warner, 187 Neb. 335, 190 N.W.2d 786. The evidence shows the defendants intended to drive the Gregory automobile as far as they could before abandoning it. When......