State v. Giles

672 A.2d 1128, 140 N.H. 714, 1996 N.H. LEXIS 22
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedMarch 12, 1996
DocketNo. 94-741
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 672 A.2d 1128 (State v. Giles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Giles, 672 A.2d 1128, 140 N.H. 714, 1996 N.H. LEXIS 22 (N.H. 1996).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

A Superior Court (Fauver, J.) jury convicted the defendant, Joseph Giles, of aggravated felonious sexual assault against his ten-year-old grandniece. See RSA 632-A:2, XI (1986) (amended 1992). He appeals, contending that there was insufficient evidence at trial to support a finding that the assault occurred during the time frame alleged in the indictment. We affirm.

The indictment alleged that the defendant assaulted the victim between February 1 and April 20, 1991. As we have frequently noted, “[t]ime is not an element of aggravated felonious sexual assault.” State v. Williams, 137 N.H. 343, 346, 629 A.2d 83, 85 (1993); see also State v. Lakin, 128 N.H. 639, 640, 517 A.2d 846, 847 [716]*716(1986). We held in Williams. however, that if under certain eireum* stances the State alleges a time frame, and the defendant professes lack of opportunity to commit the assault during that period, the State bears the burden of proving the time frame. Williams, 137 N.H. at 346, 629 A.2d at 85; see also State v. Carter, 140 N.H. 114, 119, 663 A.2d 101, 104 (1995). The defendant here asserted a time-based defense and the State conceded that Williams applied. The trial court accordingly instructed the jury that the State bore the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant assaulted the victim sometime between February 1 and April 20, 1991.

The defendant argues on appeal that the State failed to meet this burden. He “must demonstrate that no rational trier of fact could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State.” State v. Simpson, 133 N.H. 704, 706, 582 A.2d 619, 620 (1990). In evaluating the defendant’s claim, we keep in mind that “[t]he essence of a jury’s function is to determine the weight and credence to be given the evidence at trial.” State v. Meaney, 129 N.H. 448, 451, 529 A.2d 384, 386 (1987).

It is the jury which observes the witnesses, judges their credibility and hears their testimony, accepting or rejecting it in whole or in part. In determining witness credibility, the jury may accept some parts and reject other parts of testimony, and adopt one or the other of inconsistent statements by witnesses.

Morrill v. Tilney, 128 N.H. 773, 778, 519 A.2d 293, 296 (1986) (quotation and citation omitted); see also Simpson, 133 N.H. at 707, 582 A.2d at 621; State v. LaRose, 127 N.H. 146, 153, 497 A.2d 1224, 1230-31 (1985). “[T]his court will defer to the jury’s determination unless no reasonable person could have come to the same conclusion after weighing the conflicting evidence.” State v. LaCasse, 129 N.H. 651, 653, 531 A.2d 327, 329 (1987).

We find ample evidence to support a jury finding that the defendant assaulted the victim between February 1 and April 20, 1991. The victim testified as follows. During February, March, and April of 1991, when she was ten years old, she spent most Friday nights and Saturdays at her grandmother’s house. The defendant, her grandmother’s brother, lived in the house at the time. One Saturday during this period, her grandmother unexpectedly had to work a shift at the shoe factory where she was employed and left the victim home with the defendant. The defendant assaulted the victim on that occasion.

[717]*717Under cross-examination, the victim equivocated about the probable date of the assault, stating that it might have happened during the month of December or January. The victim also said she thought she was eight years old when the defendant assaulted her. We reject the defendant’s implication, however, that such testimony necessarily negated the victim’s earlier, time-specific statements. Although the victim’s equivocations likely detracted from the strength of her earlier testimony, the jury was well within its fact-finding discretion to discount the cross-examination testimony in favor of her statements under direct examination. See Simpson, 133 N.H. at 707, 582 A.2d at 621; Morrill, 128 N.H. at 778, 519 A.2d at 296.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, and keeping in mind the jury’s fact-finding discretion, we find ample direct evidence that the assault took place sometime during the months of February, March, and April of 1991. Such evidence, however, leaves open the possibility that the assault occurred between April 21 and April 30, outside the February 1 through April 20 time frame alleged in the indictment. There was no direct evidence concerning those last days of April. Consequently, the State bore the burden of establishing through circumstantial evidence that the assault occurred between February 1 and April 20, and not April 21 through April 30 or any other time.

In reviewing the sufficiency of the circumstantial evidence presented to the jury, we must decide whether the evidence was “sufficient to allow the jury to exclude all rational conclusions other than the defendant’s guilt.” State v. McCue, 134 N.H. 94, 104, 589 A.2d 580, 586 (1991); see also State v. Newcomb, 140 N.H. 72, 80, 663 A.2d 613, 619 (1995). “In determining whether the jury was so entitled, we recognize that it may draw all reasonable inferences from circumstantial evidence, just as it may from direct evidence.” McCue, 134 N.H. at 104, 589 A.2d at 586.

We find that the circumstantial evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to allow the jury to exclude all rational conclusions other than that the defendant assaulted the victim between February 1 and April 20,1991. From January through June 1991, the defendant worked with the victim’s grandmother at the shoe factory. After reviewing the company’s records, the former office manager testified that, during the defendant’s six months of employment, there was only one Saturday when the victim’s grandmother worked, but the defendant did not. That Saturday was March 9, 1991, a date within the time frame alleged in the indictment. A March 9 crime date is consistent with the victim’s assertion that the defendant [718]*718assaulted her on a Saturday while her grandmother worked. The testimony of the former office manager, which the jury could reasonably accept in its entirety, see State v. Sands, 123 N.H. 570, 590, 467 A.2d 202, 214 (1983), excludes any rational conclusion that the defendant assaulted her on another date between January and June 1991. Because the victim’s testimony placed the assault between February and April of 1991, the jury heard sufficient evidence to find that the assault occurred within the time frame alleged in the indictment.

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Bluebook (online)
672 A.2d 1128, 140 N.H. 714, 1996 N.H. LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-giles-nh-1996.