Carter Murphy retained a firm to represent him in a criminal action. He has been arrested and charged with burglary. Specifically, need to know if the Solicitor can prove that Mr. Murphy broke into a dwelling, as defined by South Carolina law.

write a memo with the findings

File Number:11-1367-CR

File Interview:Carter Murphy - Criminal Defense

Interviewing Attorney:K. Crater

Last Thursday, police apprehended and arrested Carter Murphy in Charleston, South Carolina. The State charged Murphy with burglary. Mr. Murphy retained our firm to represent him in his criminal case.

According to the Police reports and the client interview, the incident occurred as follows:

Joseph Miller, a surfing instructor, leases a small retail surf shop on 10th Street in Folly Beach, South Carolina. Miller's shop is near the 10th Street East popular surfing spot on the beach. Miller uses part of the building for a surf shop, but uses the back of the store as a part-time apartment. He owns a house in Bluffton, South Carolina, and he travels between his home and his Folly Beach business. During the week, he operates the surf shop and sees private clients for surf lessons. While at Folly Beach, Miller stays in the small apartment in the back of the store. He stores his personal surfing equipment in the apartment. He also keeps client information on a laptop in his home office.

On Wednesday, Miller was attending a surfing expo in Jacksonville, Florida when storms swept up the East Coast. The storms brought high winds and caused significant ocean swells. Some storefronts on Folly Beach, including Miller's store, experienced some minor flooding and wind damage. The high winds and rain caused the back door of Miller's shop to swell and pop from the hinges.

At around 10pm Wednesday night, after the storms passed, Carter Murphy, John Still, and Pete Louise, local surfers who at one time frequented Miller's store, headed to the beach to check out the post-storm waves. As they walked through the alley behind the surf shop, they noticed that Miller's door was open, but they saw no lights on inside the store. They approached the back of the store to take a look. They looked inside the door and noticed Miller's laptop on a desk near the door. They saw two expensive surfboards leaning against a wall beside a small cot.

The three surfers had a falling out with Miller in 2014, when Miller recommended another local surfer, Dean Yaupon, for an endorsement deal with a new surf board maker. The three had been angry with Miller for hooking Dean up with a sponsor and a $25,000 contract. John told the others that this would be a good time to get back at Miller. He told them that they could wreck the shop and it would all be blamed on the storm.

The others agreed, and they pushed the door from its hinges, and went inside. Carter noticed the laptop and told the others that he thought they could find the phone number of the surf sponsor on Miller's laptop.

Carter turned on the laptop and started looking through Miller's contact files. Meanwhile, John and Pete went through the curtain that divided the shop from the apartment and home office. As they walked into the shop, they unknowingly triggered an alarm sensor. The security alarm started blaring. John and Pete both ran back through the curtain and through the apartment to the alley. Carter, startled and frightened that his fingerprints were now on the laptop, closed it, tucked it into his shirt, and ran from the building.

All three were arrested early Thursday morning after Celeste Michaels, a waitress at a 24 hour diner saw them hovering over a laptop, overheard them talking about how to strip the hard drive, and called the police.