Dinkins v. State

Willie Dinkins appeals his judgment of conviction and sentence for armed robbery. Following the denial of his amended motion for new trial,1 he asserts the general grounds, the State’s improper use of his pre-arrest and post-arrest silence for impeachment purposes, and his trial counsel’s ineffectiveness in failing to object to the State’s questioning on this point. We find no error and affirm. 1. We first consider the general grounds. Construed to support the verdict, the evidence shows that Dinkins’s co-defendant, Roderick Young, pled guilty and testified against Dinkins at trial. Young told the jury that Dinkins willingly participated in the robbery and took the money from the cash register drawer. According to Young, Dinkins entered the store first to lure the clerk to the front so that Young could rob the register. The victim testified that the gunman ignored Dinkins while robbing the store, never looking at him or pointing the gun at him. After the robbery, Dinkins asked the clerk which way the gunman went, and then went in the same direction.

Within a few minutes, a police officer answering the robbery call saw a “suspicious vehicle” and stopped it “a couple of tenths of a mile” from the store. Young and Dinkins were in the car, and the mask used in the robbery and the cash drawer from the store register were in plain view in the vehicle. Dinkins also had money in his pocket matching the number and denomination of bills taken from the cash drawer.