State v. Eldridge

WEBB, Judge.

The defendant first assigns as error the trial court’s denial of his motion to dismiss the charge of first degree burglary because there is no evidence from which the jury could find that the defendant had committed a breaking as required by G.S. 14-51. We believe this argument has merit.

The offense of first degree burglary requires proof that the defendant both broke and entered the dwelling house of another in the nighttime, intending to commit a felony within. A “breaking” is defined as any act of force, however slight, used to make an entrance “through any usual or unusual…