## Facts

- Two men (Smith and Reed) robbed a grocery store using a toy gun displayed as if it were real.
- Before the robbery, multiple meetings occurred involving Smith, Reed, Angela Walden, and Benita Darby where the grocery store robbery was discussed.
- At the meetings, participants discussed and agreed that a real gun would be needed for the planned robbery.
- After the robbery, Smith and Reed fled to a car driven by Walden, who drove them from the scene; the group was arrested shortly afterward.
- Smith and Reed testified for the State and implicated Darby as a participant in the planning discussions.
- Darby did not enter the store or personally take property.
- The State charged Walden and Darby with common-law robbery and charged Darby with conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon.
- At the close of the State’s evidence, Darby moved to dismiss both charges for insufficient evidence; the trial court denied the motion.
- The jury convicted Darby of common-law robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to convict Darby of common-law robbery as a principal under acting-in-concert or aiding-and-abetting theories despite her not entering the store.
2. Whether the evidence was sufficient to convict Darby of conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon when the robbery was carried out with a toy gun rather than a real gun.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of Darby’s motion to dismiss.
- The Court affirmed Darby’s conviction for common-law robbery as a principal.
- The Court affirmed Darby’s conviction for conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon.
- The Court held that planning-meeting evidence and reasonable inferences supported submitting both charges to the jury.

## Legal Principles

- Common-law robbery is the felonious, nonconsensual taking of property from a person or in their presence by violence or fear.
- Under acting-in-concert or aiding-and-abetting principles, a defendant may be convicted as a principal when acting with others pursuant to a common plan and sharing the criminal intent, even if the defendant does not perform each physical element of the offense.
- On a motion to dismiss for insufficiency, the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the State with all reasonable inferences; credibility conflicts and contradictions are for the jury.
- Criminal conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act (or a lawful act by unlawful means) and is complete upon formation of the agreement; completion of the contemplated offense is not required.
- For conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, the State may prove the “dangerous weapon” object by evidence that the agreement contemplated use or threatened use of a real dangerous weapon, even if the participants later use a non-dangerous substitute.

## Conclusion

The court upheld Darby’s robbery conviction based on evidence permitting a jury finding that she joined a common plan, and upheld her armed-robbery-conspiracy conviction because the unlawful agreement contemplated use of a real gun, making the conspiracy complete even though the robbers ultimately used a toy gun.


State v. Walden, 75 N.C. App. 79, 330 S.E.2d 271 (N.C. Ct. App. 1985)