People v. Baskerville

Someone robbed the Plattsburgh air-force base exchange. The robber wore a hooded sweatshirt with the lower half of his face covered and a towel wrapped around his arm. One witness said she saw something black inside the towel, which she thought was a gun. Another witness said the robber raised his towel-wrapped arm, pointed it at someone, and threatened to kill her. The robber took $30,000 from the cashier’s safe and stuffed it into a plastic trash bag. Within a half hour, airman Kaydon Baskerville (defendant) told an acquaintance someone had robbed the exchange. Less than three hours later, Baskerville put down $6,000 on a new car—in cash still bundled in wrappers dated, initialed, and stamped with the base exchange’s official seal. A search of Baskerville’s room turned up $1,000, a bag matching the trash bag, clothing matching witness descriptions, and a sneaker matching a footprint by the exchange. The trial judge instructed the jury to convict for first-degree robbery only if Baskerville displayed something that appeared to be a weapon. The judge explained that making someone believe something was a weapon, or holding or wrapping something to create that impression, sufficed. The jury convicted. Baskerville appealed on multiple grounds, including that the evidence did not show the robber displayed a weapon.