Effort to Remove Screen Window Was Illegal ‘Entry’

A would-be burglar who started to remove a window screen on a house before he was interrupted was properly convicted of breaking-and-entering because his fingertips penetrated the boundary of the home’s interior space, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled Feb. 25 (State v. Holt, 2016 BL 55131, N.M., S-1-SC-35298, 2/25/16).

The court rejected the defendant’s claim that “entry,” for purposes of the breaking-and-entering law, involves physically invading the interior of the home and doesn’t include a slight penetration of the outermost plane of a structure that is still outside the glass window itself.

“It is reasonable for ...