I’ll willing to bet that most of you sang these lyrics as a child: “You put your right hand in, You put your right hand out, You put your right hand in, And you shake it all about, . . .” But I’m also willing to bet that you never pondered this: What about putting the butt of a shotgun in? Is that entry for purposes of burglary? Well, the issue came in a recent case, State v. Watkins, giving us a great opportunity to review the rules about the meaning of the term “enter” as used in burglary and related offenses. In Watkins, the defendant used the butt of a shotgun to break a window of a townhome. The defendant had heard that there were drugs inside, and he planned to steal the drugs, money or both. When the defendant broke the window the end of the shotgun “breached the threshold” of the premises, which is just a fancy way of saying that part of the shotgun entered the window. The defendant then heard a noise inside the townhome and fled. The defendant was charged with and convicted of first-degree burglary. On appeal, he argued that the evidence was insufficient on the issue of entry. The State countered, arguing that the simultaneous breaking and entering by the end of the shotgun into the window of the residence was sufficient to support the conviction. The Court of Appeals agreed with the defendant, in an opinion that’s right in line with existing [...]
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