State v. Hall

Without question, defendant committed serious criminal conduct when he entered the restaurant, told the cashier to put the restaurant’s money into his bag, and fled. The legal question before the court is whether the evidence was sufficient to support the charge of robbery in the third degree. The parties disagree about whether the evidence would permit a jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that, in the course of committing theft, defendant “threatened] the immediate use of physical force upon another person” within the meaning of ORS 164.395(1).1 The task of statutory interpretation is…