Opinion ID: 2625941
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: ¶ 49 Defendant maintains that even if his statements are considered, the evidence was insufficient to sustain his convictions and his motion for a judgment of acquittal should have been granted. A judgment of acquittal pursuant to [R]ule 20... is appropriate only when no substantial evidence warrants a conviction. Substantial evidence is proof that reasonable persons could accept as sufficient to support a conclusion of a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Spears, 184 Ariz. 277, 290, 908 P.2d 1062, 1075 (1996) (citation omitted). Although the physical evidence tying Defendant to the crime was minimal, [11] physical evidence is not required to sustain a conviction if the totality of the circumstances demonstrates guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Fulminante, 193 Ariz. 485, 494, ¶ 26, 975 P.2d 75, 84 (1999). ¶ 50 Five witnesses, including L.C., testified about incriminating statements Defendant made. See supra ¶¶ 30-31 for L.C.'s statements. ¶ 51 V.C. testified that Defendant stated that he had beaten a guy with the butt of a gun and dumped the body between Phoenix and New Mexico. Defendant had added that Lindberry's car had not been reported stolen yet. ¶ 52 D.F. testified that he had confronted Defendant and told him that he knew that he had killed the guy who owned the car Defendant was driving and that he did not want to be involved, and Defendant had responded, [t]hat's cool. D.F. also testified that Defendant had told him that Mileham was dope sick and had not participated in the killing and that Lindberry's body was dumped between Phoenix and New Mexico. ¶ 53 D.G. testified that Defendant brought the subject of the murder up on more than one occasion while in jail, and that Defendant made the following statements: Mileham arranged a meeting with an older person whom Mileham knew so that they could rob him. Defendant beat the man and they dumped the body on the east side of the Palo Verde power plant. The body was never found. The victim had a storage unit in which he kept items; Defendant went to the storage unit with someone to get the property and they had a code to get in. Defendant and Mileham used the victim's credit card, drove his car to Las Cruces, New Mexico and back, and one of them had gotten sick. Once they returned to Phoenix, the police had pulled Mileham over while he was driving the victim's car. ¶ 54 S.R. testified that Defendant made the following statements: When S.R. saw Defendant in Lindberry's car, Defendant told him it belonged to an older man. Defendant and Mileham were going to get into the car and rob the car's owner of his cigarettes. During the robbery, Mileham used a pistol and Defendant and Mileham directed Lindberry to drive to the desert. They gave Lindberry a shot of dope to calm him down, but he went into convulsions after the shot and died. They dropped the body in the desert somewhere. Mileham was too doped up to remember where they left the body. Defendant grabbed Lindberry's wallet and they took the car. Defendant and Mileham used the credit card in the wallet to buy things like VCRs and sold them elsewhere. Defendant and Mileham then drove Lindberry's car to New Mexico, using the credit card to buy gas. Finally, Defendant claimed to have a briefcase of fake Rolexes that he said came from Lindberry's storage unit. ¶ 55 The witnesses' testimony of Defendant's statements, combined with the evidence that Lindberry had met with foul play, was sufficient to support the jury's verdict that Defendant was guilty of felony murder, kidnapping, robbery, and theft. Defendant maintains that the witnesses were not credible and their testimony must be discounted because the witnesses were either jailhouse informants, felons, drug abusers, or a combination of the three. The credibility of witnesses, however, is a matter for the jury. State v. Cañez, 202 Ariz. 133, 149, ¶ 39, 42 P.3d 564, 580 (2002). The jury apparently found these witnesses credible despite Defendant's counsel's meticulous impeachment of the witnesses with their prior felonies, their drug and alcohol use, how or whether their substance use affected their recollection of the events to which they testified, and one witness's split personality. 4. Did the court's reasonable doubt instruction, approved in State v. Portillo, 182 Ariz. 592, 898 P.2d 970 (1995), deprive Defendant of his right to due process of law by lowering the State's burden of proof? ¶ 56 This court has repeatedly rejected this argument. See, e.g., Cañez, 202 Ariz. at 156, ¶ 76, 42 P.3d at 587; State v. Van Adams, 194 Ariz. 408, 418, ¶¶ 29-30, 984 P.2d 16, 26 (1999).