State v. Summerhill

CRIST, Judge.

Defendant was found guilty by a jury of stealing forty-three cents from the person of Edsel Wright. The jury assessed punishment at two years imprisonment, but the trial judge found defendant to be a persistent offender and enhanced punishment to ten years imprisonment. Defendant asserts instructional error regarding punishment. We affirm.

Edsel Wright was waiting for a bus when defendant placed his hand on Wright’s shoulder and asked for money. When Wright advised defendant he couldn’t help, defendant snatched from Wright’s hand a coin purse containing forty-three cents.…