State v. Williams

Summary

The Oregon Supreme Court held that third-degree robbery under ORS 164.395 requires the use or threatened use of physical force upon another person, meaning contact that causes bodily harm or is reasonably capable of creating a sense of fear or danger that such harm will occur. The court concluded that grabbing a motel keycard from a guest’s hand without touching or threatening the guest did not satisfy that standard. It reversed the Court of Appeals and the circuit court’s judgment in part and remanded for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The phrase physical force upon another person encompasses contact with another person that either causes bodily harm or is reasonably capable of creating a sense of fear or danger that such harm will occur. It requires more than any degree of bodily force, although it need not be violent.
2. The evidence that defendant quickly took a motel keycard from RH's hand, without causing bodily harm, touching RH's hand, threatening RH, or creating a reasonable fear or danger of bodily harm, was insufficient to establish the physical-force element of third-degree robbery.

Questions Presented

1. What conduct constitutes the use or threatened immediate use of physical force upon another person under Oregon's third-degree robbery statute, ORS 164.395(1)?
2. Whether taking a motel keycard from a person's hand without touching or threatening the person constituted physical force sufficient to support a third-degree robbery conviction.
3. Whether the trial court erred in denying defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded