Opinion ID: 1227642
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: In his sufficiency-of-the-evidence attack on his conviction, appellant asserts: This is a classic case where the police arrived and arrested the suspect before the crime was committed. They then attempted to make out a case of attempted burglary and possession of a burglary tool.       The prosecutor attempted to create the crime of attempted burglary by use of fabricated evidence, either carelessly handled or manipulated, unsatisfactory identification and insinuation and innuendo as to the necessary showing that defendant had made a substantial step toward the commission of the crime of burglary. The evidence shows no such substantial step in the form of an entry or even the possibility of an entry. In addition to the direct attack on the witness' identification and the officer's credibility, appellant's insufficiency claim includes (1) failure to disprove the defense of impossibility; (2) inadequate proof of a substantial step toward the commission of the crime; (3) failure to deny or negate abandonment of possible criminal effort; and (4) failure to prove specific intent. We examine each of appellant's claims in light of the evidence before the jury. Intoxication as a defense was not presented as a trial theory. Cf. Crozier v. State, Wyo., 723 P.2d 42 (1986). Appellant is thoughtful and ingenious in his presentation. However, except for the last contention of failure to prove specific intent, each of the other claimed insufficiencies of the evidence is, in the factual stature of this case, properly within the province of the jury to determine by accepting or rejecting the trial evidence. Cheatham v. State, Wyo., 719 P.2d 612 (1986); Russell v. State, Wyo., 583 P.2d 690, 700 (1978), [I]t is for the jury, not this court on appeal, to sort out any conflicts; Fresquez v. State, Wyo., 492 P.2d 197 (1971). Judging from the photograph in evidence, it would have taken considerable time to get past the broken glass windows and into the building by cutting a sufficient hole in the plywood. It was not impossible, although certainly time consuming. The broken glass and mutilated plywood was sufficient evidence that a substantial step toward the commission of the crime had been taken. Abandonment was clearly contradicted by the testimony of the arresting officer and Mr. Brennaman based on their actual observations. Appellant was positively identified, and his trial counsel failed to impeach the veracity of the police officer or the eyesight of the apartment dweller. In summary, there was believable evidence before the jury from which it was entitled to find that the crime was possible; the appellant took a substantial step toward its commission; the appellant did not abandon his criminal activity; and it was indeed appellant who committed the crime. Sufficiency of the evidence on these issues exists. United States v. Sutton, 801 F.2d 1346 (D.C. Cir.1986); Dangel v. State, Wyo., 724 P.2d 1145 (1986); Cowell v. State, Wyo., 719 P.2d 211 (1986); Lewis v. State, Wyo., 709 P.2d 1278 (1985). The Supreme Court of Minnesota recently restated general principles for appellate review in a rational and refined explication: In reviewing the sufficiency of evidence in a criminal case, this court makes a painstaking review of the record to determine if the evidence is sufficient to permit the jury to reach the conclusion that it did. [Citation.] The court will not disturb the verdict if the jury, acting with due regard for the presumption of innocence and for the necessity of overcoming it by proof beyond a reasonable doubt, could reasonably conclude that a defendant was proven guilty of the offense charged. [Citation.] The court considers the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and will assume that the jury disbelieved any testimony in conflict with the result it reached. [Citation.] State v. Richardson, Minn., 393 N.W.2d 657, 661-662 (1986). The only important remaining sufficiency issue is proof of intent to steal as an element of the criminal offense. See discussion of specific intent as recently restated by this court in State v. Crozier, supra, quoting from Dorador v. State, Wyo., 573 P.2d 839 (1978). Both appellant and appellee rely on the intent standard for the offense of burglary expressed in Mirich v. State, Wyo., 593 P.2d 590, 591 (1979):    We approach this assertion of error in light of our long-established rule that, when a defendant charges a lack of sufficient evidence to sustain the jury verdict, it is the duty of the supreme court to decide whether there is sufficient evidence on which the jury could base its verdict and, in the discharge of that duty, this court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the State.    In determining the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, the test is not whether the evidence establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt for members of the supreme court, but rather whether the evidence of record is sufficient to form a basis for reasonable inference of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt to be drawn by the jury when the evidence is viewed in a light most favorable to the State. Elements urged by the State as evidentially sufficient for this conviction are: 1. time of day; 2. persistent effort to break out the plywood (20 to 25 minutes); 3. knowledge of contents of the pawn shop; 4. physical conduct when the police arrived; 5. position of the knife and proof of damage to the plywood covering; and 6. res-gestae statement at the scene and subsequent statement at the police station. Applying the rationale and reasoning of Mirich, this court concludes that there was evidence from which the jury was entitled to find that the specific intent to steal was properly inferable from the evidence. The charge against defendant was breaking and entering with intent to steal (burglary). It is indisputable that the intent to steal is just as essential for the prosecution to prove with competent evidence as is the breaking and entering.    It would not be possible or fruitful for us to exhaustively list all the circumstances from which a jury might properly have inferred the intent to steal. Suffice it to say they are numerous, various, and the quantum of proof required necessarily depends upon the totality of the circumstances presented. Mirich v. State, supra, 593 P.2d at 593. All the facts and circumstances of the case are proper to be taken into account by the jury. Broom v. State, Wyo., 695 P.2d 640 (1985); Young v. State, Wyo., 678 P.2d 880 (1984); Delmont v. State, 15 Wyo. 271, 88 P. 623, reh. denied, 15 Wyo. 271, 88 P. 1102 (1907).