Opinion ID: 1506841
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Gregoire's Appeal

Text: Gregoire also challenges, inter alia, the denial of his judgment-of-acquittal motion. Like Chris Moran, Gregoire claims that all the facts and circumstances necessary to prove the crimes charged against him had not been established beyond a reasonable doubt. The state strives to convince us that the impression of Gregoire's fingerprints on the getaway car is powerful evidence that he must have been involved with the Morans as the getaway driver. But the long and the short of it is that Gregoire may have innocently left his prints there either before or after the robbery. Cf. State v. Payne, 186 Conn. 179, 440 A.2d 280, 282 (1982) (noting that [u]nless it can be shown that the circumstances are such that the fingerprints could have been impressed only at the time the crime was perpetrated, the presence of the defendant's fingerprints [on the car] does not establish his connection with the crime charged, and since [t]he state was unable to present any evidence dating the defendant's fingerprints or otherwise limiting [the timing of] their impression to the circumstances of the crime, a judgment of acquittal was in order); Commonwealth v. Morris, 422 Mass. 254, 662 N.E.2d 683, 685 (1996) (noting that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the fingerprint was placed there during the crime). No prints were found inside the car. And the expert could not say how long the exterior prints had been on the car. (He did say that such prints could last for several years.) Because the fingerprint evidence on the trunk of the car was insufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Gregoire drove the getaway car, his judgment-of-acquittal motion should have been granted.