Here’s a fact pattern that comes up from time to time: Dan walks into a store, takes some merchandise, and leaves without paying for it. Eric, a store employee, sees Dan stealing the merchandise. He follows Dan into the parking lot and confronts him. A scuffle ensues. What’s the proper charge? Most of the time, it's common law robbery, though the answer may depend on how the scuffle goes. If Dan uses enough force on Eric to overcome Eric’s resistance and make Eric give up on the confrontation, Dan should be charged with common law robbery. See, e.g., State v. Porter, 198 N.C. App. 183 (2009) (defendant was properly convicted of common law robbery where he stole merchandise from a store, was confronted by the store manager in the parking lot, and punched the manager, knocking him unconscious, before leaving with some of the merchandise). If Dan uses enough force on Eric to get away from Eric and make off with the merchandise, even though Eric doesn’t give up on the confrontation, Dan should probably still be charged with common law robbery, although the issue is a bit more complicated. In this scenario, Dan may argue that the force he used did not “induce the victim to part with [the] property,” Jessica Smith, North Carolina Crimes 380 (7th ed. 2012) (discussing the elements of robbery), in that Eric continued to fight for the merchandise. There’s language in many cases that could be read to support his argument, like the following from [...]
Faculty Coordinators
