## Facts

- Hayes proposed to William Hill (the store owner’s stepson) that they break into and steal from a general store in Boynton, Missouri.
- Hill secretly reported the plan to the store owners and local citizens, who then hid in and around the store to catch Hayes during the attempt.
- Near midnight, Hayes and Hill went to a warehouse window of the store.
- Hayes raised the window and broke the catch to allow entry, then helped Hill climb into the building.
- Inside, Hill handed Hayes a 45-pound piece of bacon; Hayes asked for more, but no more was taken.
- Hayes helped Hill out of the window, took the sack with the meat, and the two walked away; they were confronted, shots were fired, and Hayes fled, dropping the meat before being captured.
- Hill was acting to expose Hayes and lacked any intent to steal.

## Issues

1. Whether Hayes could be convicted of burglary when he did not enter the building and the only entrant (Hill) entered without felonious intent, acting as a decoy to apprehend Hayes.
2. Whether Hill’s entry could be imputed to Hayes under accomplice/principal theories to satisfy burglary’s entry element.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed the burglary conviction.
- The court held Hayes could not be convicted of burglary because the only entrant lacked intent to commit a felony or theft, so the entry could not be attributed to Hayes.
- The court concluded the evidence supported petit larceny based on Hayes’s taking and carrying away of the meat with felonious intent.
- The case was remanded with directions to enter judgment for petit larceny only.

## Legal Principles

- Burglary requires a breaking and entry by the defendant (or an attributable agent) coupled with intent to commit a felony inside.
- Acts of another person are imputable for burglary only when there is a shared criminal purpose; attribution depends on a “common motive and a common design.”
- When the person who enters is an informer or decoy acting to expose the defendant and lacks criminal intent, that person is not an accomplice for purposes of attributing the entry.
- A failed burglary theory does not preclude larceny liability when the defendant knowingly takes and carries away property with intent to steal.

## Conclusion

The court set aside Hayes’s burglary conviction because the entry element could not be satisfied through an entrant who lacked felonious intent and acted to apprehend Hayes; however, Hayes’s conduct established petit larceny based on the completed taking and asportation of the stolen meat.


State v. Hayes, 105 Mo. 76, 16 S.W. 514 (Mo. 1891)