Examples Of A Memo Sample

MEMORANDUM

To: Supervising Attorney - Circuit Attorney’s Office

From: Liudmyla Perepelytsia

Re: Determination of Charges for Chip Whitehead

Date: November 11, 2014

QUESTION PRESENTED

This memo addresses the issue of whether a garage can be considered an "inhabitable structure" for the purposes of prosecution of Burglary in the First Degree when the building in question is connected to the inside part of the house only with a door that has been blocked for the past fifteen years? BRIEF ANSWER Yes. Under Missouri Law, it is likely that the building is an inhabitable structure and the defendant, Chip Whitehead, could be charged with Burglary in the First Degree. Under Missouri Statutes, a building is inhabitable “where people assemble

and Mrs. Greentree. The couple stated that they were coming back home with their grandchildren when they saw a stranger exiting their garage holding several items which they identified as their belongings. Mr. and Mrs. Greentree also informed the police that they did not want to confront that person as they were concerned about their grandchildren.

Shortly police arrived and confronted the intruder. The suspect was holding a pick-shovel, but as he saw the police officers, he dropped the tool trying to escape the scene. He was captured and brought in for questioning. The suspect was identified as Chip Whitehead.

After securing the house and garage, the police found out that there was a person inside the house during the event. It was Mr. and Mrs. Greentree’s daughter-in-law, Judy, who was asleep at the time of the incident. The police also examined the premises and learned that the garage was added on to the house ten years after it was built. Over the years, the structure has been used as a garage or storage. At some point it was even converted into a den/rec room for their son and his friends. There is a door that connects the inside part of the house with the garage, but it has been blocked for the last fifteen years with an entertainment center. The entertainment center is comparatively big, but could be moved by an average-sized

and Mrs. Greentree, and that at the time Whitehead made his unlawful entry, another person, who was not a participant in the burglary, was present in the building. § 569.160, RSMo (2013)

The building in question is a combination of garage and den/rec room. The residence of the Geentrees was built first, and the garage was later attached to the residence. The fact that the garage is under the same roof, functionally interconnected with, and immediately contiguous to other portions of the house, proves that garage is a part of a dwelling structure, thus is “inhabitable.”

In State v. Walker, it was determined that an attached garage need not have a door connecting the garage to the interior of the house to be part of the dwelling house. State v. Walker, 693 S.W. 2d 237 (Mo. App. S. D 1985). “§ 569.160.1(3) abolished the artificial distinction between dwelling houses and other types of buildings that case law before the code had made in determining whether the type of building involved met the requirements necessary to prove first degree burglary. Proof that any burgled building contained people who were not participants in the ongoing felonious break-in meets the statutory requirement to prove first degree burglary.” State v. Walker, 693 S.W. 2d 237 (Mo. App. S. D