Opinion ID: 1951292
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: The defendant suggests that the evidence presented by the State does not directly establish his role in the alleged offense and thus a verdict of guilty could not be supported. We disagree. The jury could have found that the nature of the defendant's activity was such as could have been classified active co-operation in an illegal event. It was not necessary for the State to prove by direct evidence what the defendant's activities were in the short period of time which elapsed between his companion's exit from the car and the youth's emergence from the vandalized building. The defendant contends that, without such direct evidence, a jury verdict of guilt as a principal would be based on surmise. Such argument ignores the convincing nature of the circumstantial facts which surround the burglarious enterprise and point to Thibodeau's role as an active participant in a planned criminal scheme. What we said in State v. Jackson, 1974, Me., 317 A.2d 814, at 816 applies as well in the instant case: Proof of the crime itself is clear and unmistakable. The circumstantial evidence in the record, seen in its full perspective, forms a reliable basis upon which the fact finder did properly conclude that Defendant-Appellant acted in concert with the actual perpetrator,. . .. The inference most logically drawn from [the defendant's] actions, before, during and after the burglarious act is that drawn by the trier of the facts that this Defendant was acting as a `lookout' and available to permit a ready departure.  (Emphasis added). The entry will be Appeal denied. DELAHANTY, J., did not sit.