Bowie v. State

OPINION

ERWIN, Justice.

On December 24, 1969, three young men, George Ronald Robinson, Benjamin Smith, and appellant, Melvin Bowie, entered the Hilltop Cut Rate Store on Government Hill in Anchorage; the store was then full with customers. One of the men, Robinson, leaped over the counter and pounded on the cash register, demanding that it be opened and the deposited money given to him.

Fortunately for the store’s owners, but unfortunately for the would-be bandits, Ronald Dobson, the son of the proprietors, had come home from medical school for the Christmas holidays and was stationed at his…