Opinion ID: 2234706
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: sufficiency of evidence regarding financial crimes

Text: Castor next argues that the evidence is insufficient to support conviction of the fraud and unauthorized use of a financial device charges. She claims that there is no direct evidence that she signed any check or debit card transaction slip without Brown's authority. She argues that Brown was generous and authorized the transactions in question. The question, then, is whether the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the State, supports convictions of the financial crimes discussed below. In reviewing this evidence, we must remember that circumstantial evidence is equally probative to direct evidence. State v. Kula, 252 Neb. 471, 562 N.W.2d 717 (1997). Castor was charged with and convicted of four counts of forgery in the second degree in violation of Neb.Rev.Stat. § 28-603(1) (Reissue 1995), which provides: Whoever, with intent to deceive or harm, falsely makes, completes, endorses, alters, or utters any written instrument which is or purports to be, or which is calculated to become or to represent if completed, a written instrument which does or may evidence, create, transfer, terminate, or otherwise affect a legal right, interest, obligation, or status, commits forgery in the second degree. To sustain a conviction for forgery, it is not sufficient for the State to show that the signature is not that of the party whose name is used, but it must also affirmatively be shown that the signing was made without his or her authority. State v. Castor, 257 Neb. 572, 599 N.W.2d 201 (1999). The forgery counts involve two $2,000 checks, one made payable to Castor and one to Eddy; a check for $194.08 to Phillips 66; and a check for $140 to Self Store It, Inc. Castor was also charged with and convicted of one count of unauthorized use of a financial device in violation of Neb.Rev. Stat. § 28-620 (Reissue 1995), which provides: (1) A person commits the offense of unauthorized use of a financial transaction device if such person uses such device in an automated banking device, to imprint a sales form, or in any other manner: .... (d) When for any reason his or her use of the financial transaction device is unauthorized either by the issuer or by the account holder. This count involves purchases made at Wal-Mart, Target, and K mart on November 29, 1996, with Brown's debit card, which purchases totaled $163.69. The evidence shows that Castor indeed signed the checks and the sales slips. Castor admitted to having written the two $2,000 checks and having made the purchases at Wal-Mart. As to the check to Self Store It, Inc., Pam Zilly, a documents examiner for the Nebraska State Patrol Criminalistics Laboratory, testified she found that the check was filled out by Castor and that the signature was an attempted simulation of Brown's signature. As to the check to Phillips 66, Zilly found that the check was filled out by Castor and that the signature was an attempted simulation of Brown's signature, although Zilly could not identify the handwriting on the payee line. Finally, Zilly testified that the signatures on the sales slips from the November 29, 1996, transactions at Wal-Mart, Target, and K mart were attempts to simulate Brown's signature and were not his natural signatures. In addition, the police found a piece of paper containing Brown's actual signature at Brown's house, but with markings indicating that the signature had been traced a few times. A jury could conclude from this testimony that Castor indeed wrote all the checks and made the simulated signatures on the documents in question. Therefore, the issue in all the above-listed counts is whether Brown authorized Castor to engage in the transactions at issue. The evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the State, is sufficient to support the convictions. The jury found that Castor, either alone or with Eddy's assistance, murdered Brown on Thanksgiving Day, November 28. The financial transactions, however, occurred on November 29. If Brown was dead, it is a reasonable inference that he did not authorize the transactions in advance. Moreover, Castor told Angela Lauby, a close friend and coworker of Castor's, that she hated Brown and that she was living with him because she wanted his money and because he was paying her living expenses. Lauby testified that one day in November 1996, Castor came to work furious because she had opened one of Brown's bank statements and discovered that Brown had a large amount of money in his account but that he would not give her any. She said she needed money to pay her bills, but Brown had cut her off from getting his money. Castor also told Lauby that Brown did not know about the existence of the Phillips 66 card. Mary Sperry, a friend of Brown's, similarly testified that she had a conversation with Castor about a certain checking account Brown had. Castor told Sperry that she could not understand why Brown was so tight with his money when he had so much in his accounts. Sperry testified that on one occasion, Castor acted disgusted and said that she (Castor) did not think she should have to pay Brown back for money he loaned her for gas because he had so much money. Sperry said that she (Sperry) had been a close friend of Brown's for years and that though he was largely illiterate, Brown knew how to write checks. She had never seen Brown allow anyone to write his checks for him, other than his wife, Diane, who died in 1993. Sperry testified that Brown was particular about his money and always said that he had worked hard for his money and that if other people wanted money, they could earn their own. She said Brown would loan people money if he trusted them, but he would not give them money outright. Sperry said it would have been out of character for Brown to have given Castor and Eddy $2,000 each. An account analyst for Phillips 66 testified that an account was opened with her company in Brown's name on September 17, 1996, and that the billing address was promptly changed to Castor's post office box on September 30. On November 26, the account was past due, so she called Brown. Brown denied ever having opened the account and requested that the account analyst close it. He did not acknowledge having made any payments, despite the fact that a money order dated November 21, 1996, bearing his purported signature, had already been sent to Phillips 66. Later, a check, dated November 29 and written by Castor but bearing a simulation of Brown's signature, was sent to Phillips 66 to pay the remaining balance. The Phillips 66 card was found in Castor's car when it was searched in Nevada. The evidence shows that Brown became aware of and was upset by Castor's activities. Brown's sister testified that when she called him on Tuesday, November 26, 1996, he seemed agitated. She got the impression that he had been fighting with Castor before the call. Castor made several statements describing Brown as mad on November 26 and mad or still mad on a number of other days during that week. A reasonable jury could infer that Brown was indeed mad that Castor had set up an account without his authorization. We conclude that the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to the State, is such that a jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that Brown did not authorize the transactions in question. We therefore affirm Castor's convictions on these counts.