State v. Howell

51 P.3d 706, 183 Or. App. 360, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 1271
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 14, 2002
DocketC983933CR; A106908
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 51 P.3d 706 (State v. Howell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Howell, 51 P.3d 706, 183 Or. App. 360, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 1271 (Or. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

COLLINS, J.

pro tempore

Defendant, in a bench trial, was convicted of burglary in the first degree, ORS 164.225, theft in the first degree, ORS 164.055, and criminal mischief in the first degree, ORS 164.365, arising out of a break-in that occurred on or about November 1, 1998. He was also convicted of burglary in the first degree, theft in the first degree, and unauthorized use of a vehicle, ORS 164.135, arising out of a November 7, 1998, entry of the same residence. Defendant appeals his convictions for the November 1 burglary, theft, and criminal mischief, and the November 7 unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

On appeal, defendant assigns error to three rulings: (1) the trial court’s denial of his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the November 1 charges, asserting that there was insufficient evidence; (2) the trial court’s grant of the prosecution’s motion to exclude the testimony of the victim regarding her scheduled grand jury appearance later that day to testify against other possible defendants, which testimony defendant believes was exculpatory; and (3) the trial court’s denial of defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal on the charge of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, in which defendant argued that his mere sleeping in a car did not constitute “unlawful use.” We affirm.

Because defendant was found guilty, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the state. State v. Hurst, 147 Or App 385, 388, 936 P2d 396 (1997), rev den 327 Or 521 (1998). The residents of the home were away on an extended vacation. They hired Carl Neitch to remodel part of their house while they were away. On Saturday, October 31, Neitch left work at the residence, observing that the condition of the home was undisturbed. On Monday, November 2, 1998, Neitch entered the house and found that the front door had been broken in and the house had been thoroughly ransacked. Every drawer in every room appeared to have been emptied onto the floor. A computer appeared to be missing, and a pillowcase containing purses and video games was abandoned in a hallway. After the police investigated, Neitch nailed up the front door, and the neighbors put the house [363]*363back in order. They also unplugged the mechanical garage door opener and locked the garage door. Neitch continued, meanwhile, to work at the house.

On November 7, Neitch was again working in the house. There were no signs of a forced entry on that date and the contents of the house appeared undisturbed. When Neitch, after making a great deal of noise setting up equipment, went to run a compressor hose through the garage, he noticed defendant apparently sleeping in the victims’ car. Defendant had in his possession items of the victims’ property that would have required a thorough search of the house to locate. The only evidence of such a search was discovered after the November 1 break-in.

Specifically, when found in the car, defendant had the title to the car in his pocket and the spare keys to the car in his lap. One of the victims testified that those items had been in the den next to a jewelry box prior to the first burglary. Defendant also had a reservation confirmation, which, before the first burglary, had been on the kitchen counter with a spare key to the house. A garage door opener was on the passenger floorboard, as was an Oregon map from the glove box.

Defendant asserts that there was insufficient evidence to support the convictions arising out of the November 1 break-in. Specifically, defendant argues that no evidence links him to the November 1 break-in and that any inference that he committed the burglary is “utterly unreasonable.”1 Defendant presents several plausible alternative theories that he argues are more likely than the theory under which he was convicted. The state counters that, under our standard of review, a reasonable factfinder could have found, through inferences from the evidence, that defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The state is correct.

We review the trial court’s decision to deny the motion for judgment of acquittal based on the sufficiency of [364]*364the evidence to “determine whether a rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Hurst, 147 Or App at 388. In State v. King, 307 Or 332, 339, 768 P2d 391 (1989), the Oregon Supreme Court explained the standard for reviewing a trial court’s ruling on sufficiency of the evidence:2

“[T]he relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not proper for us to hold that there is a reasonable doubt because of conflicts in the evidence. After a verdict of guilty, such conflicts must be treated as if they had been decided in the state’s favor. After the conflicts have been so decided, we must take such decided facts together with those facts about which there is no conflict and determine whether the inferences that may be drawn from them are sufficient to allow the jury to find defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Our decision is not whether we believe defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but whether the evidence is sufficient for a jury so to find.”

(Citations omitted.)

Here, the state showed that the house was ransacked on November 1 and not on November 7. On November 7, defendant was found with small items of value, such as the spare key to the car and the title to the car, that could not have been easily found without the kind of thorough search of the house that occurred on November 1. In addition, there were no signs of forced entry on November 7, reasonably raising the inference that defendant had entered by using a key taken on November 1. Finally, the court could have also reasonably inferred from the items left in the pillowcase that the November 1 burglar intended to return.

Under our standard of review, we are not free to speculate on what other theories might also be supported by the evidence. The trial court reasonably found defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charges related to the [365]*365November 1 break-in. Consequently, the court did not err in denying defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal on those charges.

Second, we address whether the trial court erred in excluding testimony by one of the victims that defendant contends may have demonstrated that others were involved. Before trial, defendant moved to suppress evidence of a stolen credit card. The credit card had been stolen from the home of another family that was away on vacation, and the state sought to introduce the credit card and the testimony of its owner to show a common plan or scheme in burglarizing the homes. Defendant objected that any connection between himself and the other burglaries was too speculative for the evidence to be reliable. The court agreed and declined to admit any evidence of other burglaries.

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508 P.3d 520 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2022)
State v. Byam
393 P.3d 252 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2017)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 P.3d 706, 183 Or. App. 360, 2002 Ore. App. LEXIS 1271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-howell-orctapp-2002.