## Facts

- Late at night in a Fairbanks grocery store parking lot, Clynton D. Butts ran toward Cheryl Joens and grabbed her purse.
- Joens screamed and struggled with Butts over the purse; during the struggle she ended up on the ground.
- Joens released the purse because she feared Butts would attack her with a weapon if she continued resisting.
- Two bystanders saw parts of the incident, pursued Butts, and observed him flee through nearby parking lots.
- Butts dropped the purse during the chase, entered a nearby bar area, then ran toward woods.
- Police tracked Butts with a dog and found him hiding; he surrendered and said he took the purse to pay a drug debt, later stating he needed drug money.
- A grand jury indicted Butts for second-degree robbery; the first trial ended with a hung jury, and a second jury convicted him.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence (purse grab followed by a struggle causing the victim to fall and surrender the purse) established “force” required for second-degree robbery under Alaska law, supporting the indictment and conviction.
2. Whether the sentence for second-degree robbery was excessive under Alaska’s appellate sentencing review standard.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the conviction for second-degree robbery.
- The court held that the incident involved sufficient “force” because Butts used bodily impact and a physical struggle to overcome Joens’s resistance.
- The court affirmed the sentence, concluding it was within lawful bounds and not clearly mistaken.

## Legal Principles

- For Alaska robbery, “force” includes bodily impact used to overcome a victim’s resistance during the taking.
- A taking that escalates from a sudden snatch into a physical struggle—especially where the victim is pulled or forced to the ground—can satisfy the statutory force element for robbery rather than a nonforce theft offense.
- On sentence review, an appellate court will affirm a lawful sentence unless it is clearly mistaken.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Butts’s second-degree robbery conviction because the purse-taking involved a physical struggle and bodily impact sufficient to meet Alaska’s force requirement, and it also upheld the sentence as not clearly mistaken.


Butts v. State, 53 P.3d 609 (Alaska Ct. App. 2002)