State v. Thompson

597 So. 2d 43, 1992 WL 46101
Louisiana Court of Appeal·Decided March 6, 1992·No. KA 90 2254·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

597 So.2d 43 (1992)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Matthew THOMPSON.

No. KA 90 2254.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

March 6, 1992.
Writ Denied June 26, 1992.

*44 Larry Buquoi, Asst. Dist. Atty., Gonzales, for State.

Greg Lambert, Gonzales, for defendant.

Before SHORTESS, LANIER and CRAIN, JJ.

CRAIN, Judge.

Defendant, Matthew Thompson, was charged by bill of information with simple burglary, a violation of LSA-R.S. 14:62. Defendant pled not guilty and, after a jury trial, was found guilty as charged. Defendant was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment at hard labor for his conviction of simple burglary. Defendant was also sentenced to two years imprisonment at hard labor for his conviction of attempted simple escape. The trial court ordered the sentences to be served consecutively and gave defendant credit for time served. The conviction and sentence for attempted simple escape are not a part of the instant appeal. Defendant appeals his simple burglary conviction, urging four assignments of error.

FACTS

Sometime between January 5, 1989, and January 8, 1989, the Turchiano home in Ascension Parish, Louisiana, was broken into and burglarized. Defendant was arrested for the burglary because his fingerprints were found inside the home.

ASSIGNMENTS OF ERROR NUMBERS ONE AND THREE:

In his first assignment of error, the defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motion for post verdict judgment of acquittal. In his brief to this Court, defendant specifically argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of simple burglary.

The standard of review for the sufficiency of the evidence to uphold a conviction is whether or not, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could conclude that the State proved the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. See La.C.Cr.P. art. 821. The Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), standard of review, incorporated in Article 821, is an objective standard for testing the overall evidence, both direct and circumstantial, for reasonable doubt. When analyzing circumstantial evidence, LSA-R.S. 15:438 provides that the factfinder must be satisfied the overall evidence excludes every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. State v. McLean, 525 So.2d 1251, 1255 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 532 So.2d 130 (La.1988).

LSA-R.S. 14:62 provides, in pertinent part:

Simple burglary is the unauthorized entering of any dwelling, vehicle, watercraft, or other structure, movable or immovable, with the intent to commit a *45 felony or any theft therein, other than as set forth in Section 60.

Janet Luckett, the Turchianos' daughter, testified that on January 8, 1989, she went to her parents home to inspect it for them because they were out of town. Upon arriving at the house, Luckett found that it had been ransacked and numerous items of value, including a television set, a stereo, and a VCR, were missing. Luckett stated that she last inspected the house two or three days before January 8, 1989, and at that time nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. The police officers who investigated the crime scene determined the burglar's point of entry into the house to be the rear door. The officers concluded that the burglar broke the glass out of the door, reached in and unlocked the door.

The investigating officers also recovered five latent fingerprints at the scene of the crime. Two of the fingerprints were found on a black metal box which was found on the Turchiano's bedroom floor. These two fingerprints were positively identified as belonging to the defendant. The other fingerprints that were recovered from the glass television cabinet were unidentifiable. Mr. Joseph Turchiano, owner of the Turchiano home, and Luckett both testified that they did not know the defendant, that they have never known anyone by his name, that they have never invited defendant to the Turchiano home, and that they did not give him authorization to enter the house. There was testimony that the box had been in the family's possession since they obtained it from Jamaica years ago. Mr. Turchiano testified that the black box was usually kept in the bedroom dresser drawer.

The defendant argues that the State did not exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence and that no rational trier of fact could have found that the State proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Defendant claims that the State failed to prove that defendant was guilty of the burglary of the Turchiano home because the only evidence that connected defendant to the case was his fingerprints on the black metal box found on the bedroom floor. Defendant asserts that his fingerprints could have gotten on the box at a time other than the burglary and that the State failed to prove that the defendant did not handle the box at any other time.

A defendant's fingerprint on an object associated with a crime such as theft is direct evidence that the defendant touched the object at some time and is circumstantial evidence that he touched it at the time of the offense. When the State uses the fingerprint as circumstantial evidence of guilt, it must exclude any reasonable hypothesis that the defendant touched the object at some time other than the time of the offense. State v. Jackson, 582 So.2d 915, 918 (La.App. 2 Cir.1991).

In his brief to this Court, defendant sets forth several hypotheses by which he could have touched the black box at a time other than the burglary; however, under the circumstances herein, the only reasonable hypothesis to explain the presence of defendant's fingerprints on the black box is that defendant was the individual who burglarized the Turchianos' home and stole numerous items. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a rational trier of fact could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that every reasonable hypothesis of innocence had been excluded. There was sufficient evidence to support defendant's conviction of simple burglary. Thus, we find defendant's first assignment of error to be without merit.

In a somewhat related argument, defendant sets forth in his third assignment of error that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence three unidentifiable latent fingerprints. Defendant notes that, of the five latent fingerprints that were found inside the Turchiano home, only two of the prints were identified as belonging to the defendant. The three remaining fingerprints that were lifted from the glass door of a television cabinet were unidentifiable, but were allowed into evidence. Defendant claims that he was prejudiced because the unidentifiable prints created the impression that defendant's prints were found on items other than the black box, i.e., the television cabinet, and that this *46 impression likely would have led the jury to believe that defendant had been in the Turchiano home before, thus impugning an important hypothesis of innocence.

Defendant sets forth no law or jurisprudence to support this particular argument. Further, we do not find that defendant was prejudiced in any way by the introduction of the three unidentifiable fingerprints into evidence. The three fingerprints, along with the two that were identified as belonging to the defendant, were a part of the total evidence recovered from the crime scene and, thus, were relevant to th

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State v. Thompson, 597 So. 2d 43, 1992 WL 46101 (La. Ct. App. 1992).

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