Court: Man rightly convicted of robbing own home
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court has ruled that someone can be convicted of robbing a home that they own.
The court ruled Monday that Ferris Singley’s partial ownership of a Charleston County home doesn’t mean he can’t go to prison for robbing his mother there in October 2004.
Singley was sentenced to life in prison in 2006. Prosecutors say he broke into the home he owned with his brother and mother, stole $200 from her, tied her up and threatened to kill her with a knife.
Singley’s attorneys argued their client’s ownership in the home meant he couldn’t be convicted of robbing it. But the high court said Singley’s mother had thrown him out of the house and that he didn’t live there at the time.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)