Opinion ID: 2281338
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Defendants' Motions for Judgments of Acquittal.

Text: At the completion of the prosecution's case the Defendants moved unsuccessfully for judgments of acquittal. M.R.Crim.P., Rule 29. The Justice's denial of the motion was not error. The jury could properly have concluded from the testimony of Mrs. Gilpatrick that she had seen Ferrar inside the pool room in the act of breaking open one of the coin machines and that one other person was inside the pool room, aiding and abetting him, while another young man was outside consistent with allowing the jury to find that he was acting as a lookout. A reasonable inference would be that access had been gained through the broken window, that, after being observed, the thieves had attempted to escape into the building to the rear of the pool hall and that the abandoned hammer and breadpan with its money marked the course of their flight to the second and third floors. When found on the roof Ferrar and Johnson had unusually large quantities of change in their pockets. While Mimmovich was never identified as being one of the three persons seen at the time of the break and while no money was found on his person at his arrest, the unusual circumstances of his presence with the other two on the rooftop a few minutes after the break permitted the jury to conclude that his participation as a principal, and that of the other two, had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt by sufficient circumstantial evidence. State v. Richards, 85 Me. 252, 27 A. 122 (1893). At the conclusion of the testimony all three defendants again moved for judgments of acquittal. Their motions were properly denied. The Defendants denied participation in the break, said they were together and otherwise occupied while the break must have been in progress and explained their unusual presence on the roof by saying that Ferrar, who was on parole, was in danger of being found out on the street in violation of his 11 o'clock curfew so the young men sought refuge there when they saw police in the area. Johnson sought to explain the considerable quantity of small change in his pocket by saying that he had raided his little niece's piggy bank. Ferrar's sister testified that Ferrar left her house on Montgomery Street, near the scene of the break, at 11:00 P.M. The jury was presented with typical questions of credibility which it resolved unfavorably to the Defendants.