Although police found blood on Shauntai Johnson's bedsheets and wall, Johnson denied any physical altercation. Two witnesses testified to seeing Johnson around town between 4 and 5 a.m. In a consensual search of Johnson's residence, police found blood on sweatpants he was wearing the night his wife disappeared. Through DNA testing the blood on the sweatpants was identified as Shauntai Johnson's blood. When a conviction is challenged for insufficiency of evidence, this court may review only whether, when viewed in a light most favorable to the conviction, the evidence was sufficient to permit the jury to reach the guilty verdict.
Circumstantial evidence is entitled to the same weight as other kinds of evidence.
However, to sustain a conviction based entirely on circumstantial evidence, the evidence as a whole must exclude beyond a reasonable doubt any rational hypothesis other than guilt. Johnson was convicted of second degree murder for causing the death of a person protected by an order restraining Johnson from contact. The protection order prohibiting Johnson from having any contact with Shauntai Johnson was entered into evidence at trial, and Johnson does not dispute the element pertaining to the protection order. Johnson challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to prove the remaining two elements. These facts taken together are sufficient to support the guilty verdict.