State v. Rankin

666 A.2d 123, 1995 Me. LEXIS 234
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedOctober 24, 1995
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 666 A.2d 123 (State v. Rankin) 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. Rankin, 666 A.2d 123, 1995 Me. LEXIS 234 (Me. 1995).

Opinion

DANA, Justice.

William Rankin appeals from judgments entered in the Superior Court (Knox County, Marsano, J.) following jury verdicts finding him guilty of robbery, 17-A M.R.S.A. § 651 (1983), aggravated assault, id. § 208 (1983), and assault, id. § 207 (1983 & Supp.1994). Rankin contends that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of robbery, and that the court erred in its response to an alleged discovery violation and in denying his motion for a new trial with respect to the robbery count. We vacate the judgment entered on the robbery conviction.

The evidence at the trial may be summarized as follows. Rankin and William Grant, long-time friends, drank heavily at the Wayfarer East Hotel in Rockland during the evening of April 21, 1993. They became intoxicated and belligerent and left the bar shortly before midnight. Rankin attacked Frank Roscoe, a recently paid fisherman, outside the hotel for no apparent reason, and Roscoe later discovered his wallet was missing. Rankin and Grant proceeded to the Tradewinds Hotel where Karen Olsen, a friend of Rankin, occupied room 122.

Robert Forsberg, who occupied the room just above Olsen’s (number 222), was awakened at about 1:30 a.m. when Rankin and Grant knocked on his door. Forsberg answered the door in his underwear. Rankin asked Forsberg who he was, then said “I’m so wasted,” and began punching Forsberg in the face. Rankin mistakenly thought he had knocked on Olsen’s door and became jealously enraged when he saw a man in his underwear. Forsberg ended up on the floor across the room. He saw his wallet, which had been on a table in the room, fall in front of him. The next morning he realized that the money in his wallet, about twenty dollar’s, was missing. Forsberg testified that he only saw Rankin enter the room. Forsberg agreed, however, that after the attack began he did not keep track of the second man. When Rankin was arrested he had only a few crumpled one dollar bills in his pocket. Grant, in contrast, had sufficient funds to make bail for himself and Rankin that night.

Rockland Police Officer Michael Murphy responded to the assault on Forsberg. Mur[125]*125phy testified that he interviewed Grant and that Grant was able to recollect what had occurred. When Grant was called as a witness for the State, however, he testified that he had no memory of the evening’s events. He only remembered getting drunk at the Wayfarer and waking up the next day with a hangover. He acknowledged, though, that he had pled guilty to offenses occurring that night that included receiving stolen property.

Prior to the trial, Rankin filed a motion for discovery that specifically requested “any notes taken by any police officer during the course of any interview with the co-defendant, William Grant and/or any recordings made.” At the close of all the evidence at the trial and prior to closing arguments, the prosecutor revealed that a tape existed of a statement made by Grant to Officer Murphy. The prosecutor stated that he had not listened to the tape, and he declared as follows:

It’s my understanding that there is nothing exculpatory with respect to Mr. Rankin. We had provided in discovery — in Officer Murphy’s report he indicated he had interviewed Mr. Grant, and that Mr. Grant had said to him that he, Grant, had not gone into Forsberg’s room; that he did not take Forsberg’s wallet. So I don’t believe that technically there has been a violation with respect to the State having exculpatory evidence which has not been provided.

Defense counsel responded as follows:

[I]t just ... came to my attention that these tapes were available. I do not know what the contents of the tapes are. At this time it would seem appropriate to proceed with the matter and then, should the tapes prove to have exculpatory material, file an appropriate motion at that time or request for a mistrial if appropriate....
The question is what in there of — what is in there I don’t anticipate to be problematic. The way Mr. Grant testified on the stand, I don’t believe his interviews would have changed things. If that becomes — if that is different I’ll make the court aware.

The court’s only response was to state, “I assume there are not yet copies of the tape,” to which the prosecutor responded, “There are not copies.” The court then proceeded immediately to take up other matters.

The State argued in its summation that the defense would suggest that it was not Rankin but Grant who took Forsberg’s wallet. The State asserted that this argument fails because the evidence showed that “only Mr. Rankin came into the room.” As the State predicted, Rankin argued that the question for the jury to decide was “who entered the room and took the money.” He admitted that there was sufficient evidence to find him guilty of assault. He nonetheless maintained that he did not commit a robbery, contending that Grant entered, took the wallet, and then tossed it across the room. The jury found Rankin not guilty of the robbery of Roscoe, and guilty of the robbery of Forsberg and the assaults. Judgments were entered on January 25, 1994.

On February 14, 1994, Rankin received a partial tape of the interview with Grant. The interview contains admissions by Grant that he was inside Forsberg’s hotel room and that he had physical possession of the wallet. On February 28, 1994, Rankin filed a combined “motion to dismiss, motion for mistrial, motion for new trial” with respect to the robbery count. A hearing on the motion was held on June 1,1994. At the motion hearing, Rankin argued in the following manner:

[T]his evidence of who was in possession of the wallet is enormously significant.... [T]he issue of whether or not it was Grant that walked over and grabbed the wallet, took the money and threw it across the room, or whether it was Rankin, is the difference between a robbery and not a robbery. There is no discussion of that at all in the discovery, but there was discussion of that ... in the tape that was not provided....

The court took the matter “under advisement,” and subsequently denied the motions during a conference call on June 2.

I.

We first note that there is no merit in Rankin’s contention that the evidence was insufficient to convict him of robbery. As we routinely explain, in examining the sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in [126]*126the light most favorable to the State to determine whether a trier of fact “rationally could find beyond a reasonable doubt every element of the offense charged.” State v. Barry, 495 A.2d 825, 826 (Me.1985). A verdict based on circumstantial evidence is no less conclusive than one based on direct evidence. State v. Crosby, 456 A.2d 369, 370 (Me.1983). The weight to be given to the evidence and determinations of witness credibility are the exclusive province of the factfinder. State v. Glover, 594 A.2d 1086, 1088 (Me.1991).

Pursuant to 17-A M.R.S.A. § 651(1)(D) (1983), “[a] person is guilty of robbery if he commits or attempts to commit theft and at the time of his actions ... [h]e intentionally inflicts or attempts to inflict bodily injury on another....”1

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Bluebook (online)
666 A.2d 123, 1995 Me. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rankin-me-1995.