U.S. v. Davis, 56 M.J. 299

Core Criminal Law Subjects: Crimes: Article 130 - Housebreaking Pre-2019 offenses

1. the lawfulness of an entry depends on authorization, negative or positive, express or implied and must be determined based on the circumstances in each case; seven factors are relevant, but not exhaustive, to this question: (1) the nature and function of the building involved; (2) the character, status, and duties of the entrant, and even at times his identity; (3) the conditions of the entry, including time, method, ostensible purpose, and numerous other factors of frequent relevance but generally insusceptible of advance articulation; (4) the presence or absence of a directive of whatever nature seeking to limit or regulate free ingress; (5) the presence or absence of an explicit invitation to the visitor; (6) the invitational authority of any purported host; and (7) the presence or absence of a prior course of dealing, if any, by the entrant with the structure or its inmates, and its nature
2. an entry is "unlawful" if made without the consent of any person authorized to consent to entry or without other lawful authority; the word "authority" is one upon which the very nature of a military organization is based and carries with it the notion that implicit in a grant of authority is the understanding that it will be exercised for proper purposes
3. under the facts of this case, authority to access a key to enter a warehouse carried with it an implicit obligation to enter the warehouse for an official or proper purpose and only to access the segregated area under the unit’s responsibility where: (1) there was evidence that the equipment in the warehouse for which appellant’s section was responsible was segregated from the lodging section’s equipment; (2) while appellant indeed had a key to the warehouse to gain access after hours, his officer-in-charge testified that there was no official need for appellant’s entry at the time in question; (3) the officer-in-charge also testified that he never authorized appellant to enter the warehouse for any purpose other than official business, suggesting a usual course of dealing with respect to access to the warehouse; and (4) the officer-in-charge further testified that his section did not have authority over any portion of the warehouse other than that part containing his section’s equipment
4. the purpose for the entry, ostensible or otherwise, remains a relevant factor in determining whether the entry was lawful, i.e., whether the entry was consistent with applicable authority or evidence of the first element of housebreaking

Trial Stages: Appeals: Standards of Review, Burdens, etc.

1. legal sufficiency of the evidence is reviewed by determining whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt; the court will draw every reasonable inference from the evidence of record in favor of the prosecution