State v. Bowen

A Ramsey County jury found John Lee Bowen guilty of simple robbery based on evidence that he took a bottle of liquor from the shelf of a retail liquor store, punched a store employee, and left the store with the bottle of liquor. Bowen challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and the district court's jury instructions. We conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support the conviction of simple robbery because a bottle of liquor is, as a matter of *42law, "personal property." We also conclude that the district court did not err by instructing the jury that, to find the defendant guilty, the…