Opinion ID: 1500324
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: ownership and value

Text: Thibodeau next contends that the State failed to prove the ownership and value of the goods beyond a reasonable doubt. There is no merit to this point of appeal. Mr. Kral at trial testified that he was the manager of the Knox Mining Corporation and he identified most of the property seized at 77 Pierce Street, Lewiston, Maine, together with the typewriter and adding machine, as the property of the Knox Mining Corporation which had been stolen from its establishment in the night of August 14 to August 15, 1972. The rest he identified as his own. He based his identification on the fact that, when he first went to work for the company, he had ascertained what the company owned, and, thereafter, saw the equipment either in the vault or the office prior to the break, and confirmed his testimonial identification by reason of the fact the serial numbers on the articles matched those entered on the company records in the regular course of business. No objections were made at trial to Mr. Kral's testimony concerning the company's ownership of the property stolen, and this belated effort to discredit such proof on the ground that Mr. Kral's evidence was hearsay must fail. Furthermore, the manager's familiarity with the property, his responsibility for its care and custody, his control of the company records, plus the fact he could identify some of his own property in the loot found at 77 Pierce Street, Lewiston, were all factors demonstrating beyond a reasonable doubt his competency to identify his company's property. See, State v. Estabrook, 1968, Me., 241 A.2d 880. The value of the company's stolen property which the defendant was found guilty of knowingly receiving, was established in excess of $100. [3] Mr. Kral placed the collective value of all the property at $4,000. His own goods, he stated, were worth, at the most, $425. The company's two geovoltmeters alone he valued at $638. Thus, specific proof of value in excess of $100 was abundant. The defendant cannot complain as to this aspect of the trial.