State Missouri v. Willie Harris

Defendant was charged by information with burglary in the second degree. Section 560.070. 1 The information also alleged
that prior to the offense charged he was convicted, sentenced and imprisoned for two other offenses of burglary, second degree.
Section 556.280. Prior to submission of the case to the jury the court determined that defendant had been previously convicted,
sentenced and imprisoned, as alleged; a jury found him guilty, as charged; the court assessed his punishment at imprisonment
in the penitentiary for a term of seven years, § 560.095(2); his motion for new trial was overruled and he was sentenced
in accordance with the verdict and the prior assessment of punishment. He appeals. We affirm. No contention is made that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the conviction; hence, a brief statement of the facts
will suffice. The Ellis Pool Room located at 2303 Franklin Avenue in the City of St. Louis was closed and all outside entrances
securely locked at about one o'clock, a.m., on March 20, 1966. One light was left burning above the rear pool table, as was
the owner's custom. At about three o'clock that morning, Patrolman Robert Leggitt of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,
and his partner, Patrolman Phil Stockton, were slowly traveling west in a police car on Franklin when Leggitt saw a shadow
"duck down" behind a pool table in the pool room. Leggitt stopped, he and his partner got out, and as they were approaching
the pool room, while still in the street, the front door of the pool room "* * * came flying open and * * * one male subject
came running out the front door and east on Franklin to * * * the corner of 23rd and Franklin * * * turned north on 23rd
street * * *." One business, a restaurant, is located between the pool room and 23rd street. The officers gave chase, never
losing sight of defendant between his exit from the pool room and his apprehension and arrest on 23rd street fifty or sixty
feet north of the corner. As he was being searched, defendant dropped a rat tail file. Immediately after the arrest the officers
returned to the pool room with defendant in custody. The hasp and padlock, which were secure and locked two hours earlier,
had been pried loose from the front door which was then standing open; inside the premises the officers found evidence of
a recent attempt to pry open two vending machines; a small radio that had been left on a shelf was found on the floor beside
a vending machine.