Preview:

STATE OF MINNESOTA IN SUPREME COURT A06-1563

Court of Appeals

Anderson, Russell A., C.J.

Rickford Rehmann Munger, petitioner, Respondent, vs. State of Minnesota, Appellant. Filed: May 29, 2008 Office of Appellate Courts

SYLLABUS The plain statutory language for the offense of first-degree burglary, which proscribes nonconsensual entry into a building with intent to commit a crime, does not also require that the intent must be to commit a crime within the building entered. Reversed and reinstated. Heard, considered, and decided by the court en banc. OPINION ANDERSON, Russell A., Chief Justice. The issue before us is whether the offense of first-degree burglary, which requires nonconsensual entry into a building with intent to commit a crime, requires that the intent must be to commit a crime within the building. Respondent Rickford Rehmann Munger

1

was convicted of first-degree burglary following a guilty plea in Olmsted County. He subsequently petitioned to vacate his guilty plea, arguing that the plea was invalid because the factual basis did not establish an intent to commit a crime within the building. The district court denied the petition. On appeal, the court of appeals reversed, concluding that the burglary statute required that Munger have intended to commit a crime within the building, a fact not established at the plea hearing. Concluding that the plain language of the statute does not require intent to commit a crime within the building, we reverse and reinstate the judgment of the district court. On the night of September 21, 2004, law enforcement responded to a report of a prowler at an apartment building in Rochester. A resident of a ground-level apartment explained that she had seen a man walking around the area; that he walked by her apartment windows several times; and that he looked into the windows of her apartment and those of a neighbors apartment. From another room, she watched the man look into her open bedroom window, which did not have a screen, reach inside, and open the curtain. She provided the officer with a description of the man. The police located a man matching the description within a couple of blocks of the apartment building. The man identified himself as respondent Munger. The resident positively identified Munger as the man she saw peer in her window and reach inside. Munger was charged with first-degree burglary, in violation of Minn. Stat.

Download A06-1563, Rickford Rehmann Munger, petitioner, Respondent, vs. State of Minnesot

Minnesota Law