Opinion ID: 1924213
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: II-C Inferences Arising from Possession of Stolen Goods

Text: Defendants' final claim is that the inference of guilt of larceny arising from unexplained possession of recently stolen goods was improperly utilized in this case. Contention is made that such inference must be based on recent exclusive possession of the stolen goods, State v. Mosher, Me., 270 A.2d 451 (1970) and the exclusivity factor is missing here, say defendants, because the evidence shows that Kirk Clark was in possession of the goods at the time he concealed them. The argument is fallacious. The possession here crucial is the possession of the defendants as related by the witness Clyde Porter. His testimony places the goods in the hands of the defendants at a time between 3:30 a. m. and daylight on October 3, 1974a time close to the time of the break and larceny at the Tremont School. The fact of defendants' possession of the goods as noted by Porter justifies an inference that defendants broke and entered the building and stole the goods. [7] That someone else later possessed the goods does not affect the justifiability of this inference. Defendants, however, advert to Clark's later possession of the food as the basis for an alternative argument concerning allegedly improper resort in this case to the inference arising from unexplained possession of recently stolen goods. The later possession of the goods by Clark (and Jeffrey Porter and Officer Higgins) was used by the State to prove that the goods which had been placed in Kirk Clark's car by defendants were stolen goods, stolen from the Tremont School. Defendants' contention is that for this purpose the evidence must be held inadequate since no one had remained with the goods at every instant from the time Clyde Porter observed defendants with them until Officer Higgins matched them to his list and returned them to the Tremont School. Hence, argue defendants, the fact-finder would not be justified in concluding beyond a reasonable doubt that the food Kirk Clark found in his car was the same as that which defendants possessed in Clark's car a few hours earlier. This being so, say defendants, all of the testimony by Clark, Jeffrey Porter and Higgins was inadmissible because immaterial, and, hence, no inference of guilt may validly be drawn from defendants' possession of certain food items since they were not adequately shown to have been stolen from the Tremont School. The argument fails. Clyde Porter saw certain food items placed in Kirk Clark's back seat after 3:30 a. m. on October 3. Clark found food items on the back seat of his car at 5:45 a. m. on October 3. He placed the items in three boxes, and hid them in the woods. Approximately thirty-six hours later, three boxes of food items were recovered from the same spot in the woods. The lists of items given by the various witnesses are not identical but all overlap. The totality of this evidence yield[s] a confluence of circumstances sufficiently compelling to sustain, consistently with the requirements of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, the fact-finder's. . . [conclusion] . . . that the food Clyde Porter observed in the possession of defendants was stolen from the Tremont School. State v. Bickford, Me., 308 A.2d 561, 565, 566 (1973) The entry is: Appeals denied.