State v. Coats

HUSKINS, Justice:

The trial judge submitted two, and only two, permissible verdicts, viz: guilty of armed robbery as charged or not guilty. Defendant’s first assignment of error is based on the contention that the court erred in failing to submit common law robbery as a permissible verdict. The Court of Appeals found no merit in this assignment and neither do we.

“The essential difference between armed robbery and common law robbery is that the former is accomplished by the use or threatened use of a firearm or other dangerous weapon whereby the life of a person is endangered or threatened. In…