Stocks v. State6/23/2004
After a jury trial, Howard Stocks was convicted and sentenced for burglary, felony theft of two shotguns, and misdemeanor theft of a compound bow, charges that stemmed from a single incident. On appeal, Stocks contends that there was insufficient corroboration of his accomplice's statements to support his felony convictions and that the trial court erred in allowing the prosecutor to mislead the jury during closing argument and in charging the jury. Because the record does not support Stocks's contentions, we affirm.
The state presented the testimony of Donnie Rice, who stated that on the afternoon of March 8, 2003, he and a friend returned to Rice's apartment after a day of hunting with his friend's two shotguns. For about two weeks, Stocks had been living in an adjacent apartment with his girlfriend and her son, C. K. Rice noticed that Stocks was outside and that Stocks saw him and his friend take the shotguns into Rice's apartment. Between 7:00 and 8:00 that evening, Rice, his family, and his friend left the apartment for dinner. When they returned about an hour and a half later, they discovered that the blinds hanging at a front window of the apartment were protruding outside the opened window, that the apartment had been ransacked, that the two shotguns, along with Rice's bow, had been stolen, and that the chain that had secured the back door before they left had been unlatched.
Rice's wife testified that Stocks had been the only person who had seen them leave for dinner. She and Rice had immediately suspected that Stocks was involved in the burglary of their home. The Rices went next door, but no one was there.
At about 4:00 a.m., C. K. and his mother came home, and the Rices confronted them about the incident. According to the Rices, C. K. admitted that, at Stocks's request, he had gone with Stocks to the Rices' apartment, located and then raised an unlocked window, and stood watch as Stocks entered the apartment though the window. C. K. told them that Stocks had removed the shotguns and the bow, but he did not know where Stocks had taken them.
The Rices reported C. K.'s account to a police detective , who interviewed C. K. the next day. During the interview, which was recorded and played for the jury, C. K. stated that he was terrified of Stocks. He recounted that on the previous evening, he had been at home with his mother and Stocks, that "someone" had mentioned that the Rices had "nice" guns, that he went with Stocks to the Rices' apartment, that he knocked on the door to determine whether anyone was there, that he found an unlocked window and raised it, that Stocks crawled through that window into the Rices' apartment, that he stood outside as lookout until his mother called for him about a minute later, that he did not see Stocks exit the Rices' apartment, and that about five minutes later, Stocks returned to C. K.'s residence with neither a shotgun nor a bow. C. K. pled guilty in juvenile court to charges against him related to the incident. At trial, however, C. K. deviated from his accounts given to the detective and to the Rices. Therefore, his earlier statements were admitted in evidence.
The state also presented the testimony of the manager of the apartment community, Bobby Harris, who stated that at about 8:30 on the evening of the burglary, he saw Stocks standing outside the Rices' apartment front door, which was about 25 feet from the door of the apartment where he was then living. Harris testified that, at that time, C. K. was standing at the Rice's front window and that no one else was outside. The state further elicited testimony from Harris that he had several habitual violator convictions from about 14 years before and that the
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