Opinion ID: 1262473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: sufficiency of the evidencetriggerman

Text: Eaton assigns error to the court's denial of his motion to strike the evidence at the guilt phase. He contends that the evidence was insufficient to establish that he, rather than Judy McDonald, fired the shots that killed Trooper Hines. The short answer to that contention is that the jury was entitled to, and obviously did, accept the testimony of Holley. Despite Eaton's attack on the credibility of Holley as a jailhouse snitch, Holley's testimony was corroborated in several respects: first, the circumstantial evidence of the relative locations of assailant and victim when the shots were fired; second, Eaton's murderous career on February 20 which cost three other lives; and third, Eaton's statements to the police in which he made no contention that Judy McDonald had been Hines' killer. Eaton's effort to blame the killing on Judy did not emerge until the trial, by which time Eaton's regard for her had evidently worn thin.