Opinion ID: 2182951
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sufficiency of the circumstantial evidence.

Text: It is necessary to resolve several other issues raised by the defendant, since these issues may again arise at a new trial. The first of these issues is his challenge to the sufficiency of the circumstantial evidence. Defendant maintains that the circumstantial evidence adduced at trial was insufficient as a matter of law to sustain a verdict of guilty on the burglary charge. The off-stated test when this claim is made is whether the evidence adduced, believed, and rationally considered by the jury was sufficient to prove the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. [9] Conversely stated, this rule requires that the evidence, when considered most favorably to the state and the conviction, must be so insufficient in probative value and force that it can be said as a matter of law that no trier of facts acting reasonably could be convinced to that degree of certitude which the law defines as beyond a reasonable doubt. [10] In this case all of the evidence which a jury could rely upon was circumstantial. This is not unusual where burglary is charged, since stealth and secretiveness are the regular features of this crime. Because of the nature of this crime, and because circumstantial evidence can be as probative and sometimes more probative than direct evidence, [11] it is well settled that circumstantial evidence alone is enough to convict a defendant of burglary. [12] However, when circumstantial evidence is relied upon, this evidence must be sufficiently strong to exclude every reasonable hypothesis of innocence. [13] This does not mean that, if any of the evidence brought forth at trial suggests innocence, the jury cannot find the defendant guilty. The function of the jury is to decide which evidence is credible and which is not, and how conflicts in the evidence are to be resolved. The jury can thus, within the bounds of reason, reject testimony suggestive of innocence. The rule that the circumstantial evidence must exclude every reasonable theory of innocence refers to the evidence which the jury could have believed and relied upon to support its verdict. [14] Defendant argues that no inference of guilt can arise from the evidence that Peters knew, only a few hours after the burglary, that a box with liquor had been stolen, and that it was located in the alleyway near his residence. The basis for this assertion is that Peters was not shown to be in possession of recently stolen goods without a suitable explanation, and that only such possession can trigger any kind of inference. But the rule is that such possession raises a rebuttable presumption of guilt. [15] It does not follow that, simply because such a presumption is not available, knowledge of the type and location of stolen goods loses all probative value. Such evidence remains as evidence from which the jury can, in the light of other circumstances shown, make all reasonable inferences. In regard to the other circumstantial evidence, we have carefully reviewed the record in this case. We conclude that it cannot be said that the circumstantial evidence which the jury may rely upon, when taken together, is so insufficient in probative value that no reasonable trier of fact could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.