Opinion ID: 1172220
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Sufficient evidence exists to support Lopez's conviction for first degree murder

Text: [T]he test for sufficiency [of the evidence] upon appellate review is not whether this court is convinced of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but whether the jury, acting reasonably, could be convinced to that certitude by evidence it had a right to accept. Edwards v. State, 90 Nev. 255, 258-59, 524 P.2d 328, 331 (1974). Additionally, this court has held that circumstantial evidence alone may sustain a conviction. Deveroux v. State, 96 Nev. 388, 391, 610 P.2d 722, 724 (1980). Evidence admissible against Lopez regarding the first degree murder charge includes: (1) Lopez's statement in the presence of Evans,  We did it clean and we did it good. Nobody is going to find out that we did it. (Emphasis added); (2) Lopez's statement to Melcher that he and Lisle picked up Justin and took him to the desert and that Lopez observed Lisle shoot Justin; (3) Justin's statement to Kurtz that he was going out with Vatos, also known as Lisle and Lopez, shortly before he was killed; (4) Lopez left Vanella's house with Lisle at 2 a.m. on August 22, 1994, and returned with Lisle at about 4 a.m., which was the two-hour period within which Justin was killed; (5) Lopez accompanied Lisle to sell the gun; (6) Justin's body was found in a desert area that Lopez was known to frequent; and (7) Lopez wore different tennis shoes after Justin was killed than he did before Justin's death, and Prince assisted Lopez in disposing of tennis shoes the day after the murder. Accordingly, we conclude that the evidence is sufficient for  any rational trier of fact [to find] the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2789, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).