Opinion ID: 2323975
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: There was sufficient evidence for a rational jury to convict Taylor of Abuse of a Corpse.

Text: In order to establish Taylor's guilt for Abuse of a Corpse, the State must establish that he treat[ed] a corpse in a way that a reasonable person knows would outrage ordinary family sensibilities. [35] The statute does not define the term corpse. Taylor argues that the State presented insufficient evidence for a jury to find him guilty of Abuse of a Corpse because there is no evidence that Mumford was actually dead when he took photos of her with cucumbers inserted into her mouth, anus, and vagina. To reiterate, we review de novo the sufficiency of the evidence supporting Taylor's conviction to determine whether any rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, could have found Taylor guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. [36] In this case, there was sufficient evidence for a rational jury to find Taylor guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of Abuse of a Corpse. Between 12:23 a.m. and 12:35 a.m. on the night in question, Taylor took ten pictures on his cell phone of Mumford in the condition described above. Although doctors did not officially declare Mumford dead until 9:36 p.m. the following night, nothing in the Delaware Criminal Code requires an official pronouncement of death in order to convict someone of Abuse of a Corpse. Furthermore, while the medical examiner could not opine to a degree of medical certainty whether the pictures depict Mumford dead, unconscious, or otherwise, Taylor admitted that she was dead by 3 or 4 a.m. The condition of the apartmentwith a lot of blood, the warped frying pan, and the hole in the drywall, among other factorsindicated a serious struggle. Mi Jung, the couple's neighbor, testified that she heard loud banging noises and Taylor's screams between 10 and 10:30 p.m. Notably, she testified that she did not hear Mumford's voice, even though she had heard it during previous altercations between the couple. On the basis of all these facts, construed in the light most favorable to the State, a rational jury could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt, as the jury in this case did, that Mumford was dead at the time when Taylor took the cell phone pictures of her body.