State v. Jettinghoff

478 A.2d 1125, 1984 Me. LEXIS 750
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedJuly 27, 1984
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 478 A.2d 1125 (State v. Jettinghoff) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Jettinghoff, 478 A.2d 1125, 1984 Me. LEXIS 750 (Me. 1984).

Opinion

VIOLETTE, Justice.

Rolf Jettinghoff appeals from a judgment of conviction entered by the Superior Court, Waldo County, after a jury found him guilty of burglary (Class C).1 17-A M.R.S.A. § 401 (1983). He argues that the jury’s verdict was based on legally insufficient evidence and that the witness sequestration order issued by the presiding justice at the request of the prosecutor impermis-sibly infringed upon his right to effective assistance of counsel. We affirm the conviction.

I

Sometime between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on June 10, 1982, the Whittier House Antique Shop in Searsport was burglarized and several items of silver were taken. At approximately 4:00 p.m. on June 10, defendant and a friend, Billy Joe Noble, arrived on foot at the home of Ken Williamson in Searsport. Defendant and Noble had been drinking beer together at several locations in Searsport from about ten o’clock that morning. Noble carried a paper bag containing the silver that had been stolen from Whittier House. Noble placed the bag on the floor in the corner of Williamson’s kitchen. After a short conversation with Williamson and another visitor, defendant and Noble left the house together and returned together within a half hour. This time Noble carried a brown knapsack into which he transferred the silver from the paper bag. Shortly after the transfer, defendant and Noble again left the Williamson residence together and headed toward Noble’s house. Noble carried the silver-laden knapsack.2 Defendant soon returned to Williamson’s house with some beer and Noble returned shortly thereafter. Noble had placed the silver under a fruit basket in the garage behind his house.

Later that afternoon, two Searsport police officers retrieved the silver from Noble’s garage after receiving a tip from one of the visitors at Williamson’s house. On the following day, the investigating officers positively determined that the silver was taken from Whittier House. Their investigation revealed that the shop was forcibly entered and, besides the missing silver, a silver-plated tray had been moved from the southernmost front window of the shop to a counter. In addition, a small [1127]*1127spherical foot was broken off the base of the tray. The manager of the shop found the silver foot on the floor just inside the shop’s front entrance. Although Noble testified that he acted alone in the burglary and theft, defendant’s left thumbprint was on the displaced tray.

II.

We must affirm defendant’s conviction unless no trier of fact rationally could find proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Flick, 425 A.2d 167, 169 (Me.1981). Any doubts as to the accuracy of the jury’s determination of factual questions must be resolved in favor of the verdict. State v. Theriault, 425 A.2d 986, 988 (Me.1981). To have convicted defendant of burglary, the jury had to find that he entered Whittier House, knowing that he was not licensed or privileged to do so, with the intent to commit a crime therein. The evidence produced by the State established beyond a reasonable doubt that a burglary and theft was committed at the antique shop sometime during the early afternoon of June 10, 1982. Defendant contends, however, that the evidence did not substantiate his involvement in the burglary and advances two arguments in support of his contention. Both arguments lack merit.

Defendant’s first argument is based on his claim that because the State attempted but was unable to exclude beyond a reasonable doubt every other reasonable hypothesis except that defendant touched the silver-plated tray in the antique shop at the time of the crime, he cannot be found guilty of the burglary. This argument lacks merit. There is a single standard of proof for all criminal convictions, and the test is the same in a case of either circumstantial or direct evidence: “whether from all the evidence and from such reasonable inferences as may properly be drawn therefrom the guilt of the defendant has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. LeClair, 425 A.2d 182, 184 (Me.1981), quoting, State v. Jackson, 331 A.2d 361, 365 (Me.1975).

When the state produces circumstantial evidence tending to support an inference of the defendant’s guilt, the jury must also consider, of course, any explanation for the evidence consistent with the defendant’s innocence. The jury’s guilty verdict must be based not on a determination that there exists no alternative explanation, but that, after assessing the credibility of such explanations, they raise no reasonable doubts as to the defendant’s guilt.

LeClair, 425 A.2d at 184. Here the jury was not compelled to think “reasonable” the hypothesis that defendant left his fingerprint on the silver-plated tray at some time other than the afternoon of the burglary.

Defendant’s second argument is based on his view that, because the justice never instructed the jury on accomplice liability or on the inferences it could draw from the evidence presented, defendant’s burglary conviction cannot be sustained on the present record.3 The issue here is not the failure of the trial court to give a particular instruction, but whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the jury’s verdict of guilty of burglary.

The evidence tending reasonably to prove that defendant was involved in the burglary included his fingerprint on the tray that was moved and broken sometime during the perpetration of the crime and his continued presence, both before and after the burglary and theft, with the self-admitted burglar and thief while he transported the fruits of the crime. Circumstantial evidence of defendant’s fingerprint on the tray that had been moved, coupled with defendant’s proximity to the thief both before and after the crime and to the stolen items after they were removed from the [1128]*1128shop rationally supports a jury finding that defendant entered the premises illegally with the intent to commit a crime therein. We believe the evidence supports the jury’s finding of guilt on the burglary charge. In so finding, we are not required to rationalize the guilty verdict on the burglary charge and the acquittal on the theft charge.

III.

Prior to the commencement of trial, defense counsel moved for a witness sequestration order. The presiding justice ordered all witnesses sequestered and also directed both counsel for the State and defendant not to discuss prior testimony with prospective witnesses during the course of the trial. The following colloquy between defense counsel and the court ensued:

DEFENSE COUNSEL: Can counsel discuss the testimony with two witnesses at the same time?
THE COURT: If they have not testified, I don’t see why not. The problem is, counsel simply cannot discuss what some other witness has already said, and no one else can discuss it with them either
DEFENSE COUNSEL: Counsel cannot — I cannot talk with my witnesses about what has been said in order to find out what the evidence is going to be and how we can rebut it with our evidence?

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Related

State v. Mitchell
593 A.2d 1047 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1991)

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478 A.2d 1125, 1984 Me. LEXIS 750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jettinghoff-me-1984.