State v. Cook

In State v. Cook, 115 Ariz. 188, 192 n.6, 564 P.2d 877, 881 n.6 (1977), the court reviewed a court of appeals opinion addressing whether a defendant's confession could be admitted as the only evidence that the burglary charged had occurred at night, making it a first-degree rather than a second-degree offense. State v. Cook, 26 Ariz. App. 198, 200-01, 547 P.2d 50, 52-53 (1976), vac. on other grounds, 115 Ariz. 188, 564 P.2d 877. The court of appeals had held that the corpus delicti was not the equivalent of the essential elements of burglary and that those facts that increased the degree of the offense were not included in the corpus delicti. Id. 26 Ariz. App. at 201, 547 P.2d at 53. Quoting State v. Hale, 45 Haw. 269, 367 P.2d 81 (Haw. 1961), it had written that the crime of burglary did not change into another activity depending on the "time of day." Id. The supreme court, while vacating the opinion on other grounds, agreed, stating that the confession was admissible as the only evidence of the first-degree element of burglary because that element related only to punishment. 115 Ariz. at 192 n.6, 564 P.2d at 881 n.6.