Opinion ID: 2083933
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Defendant's Motions for Judgment of Acquittal

Text: At the completion of the State's case the Defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal based upon a claimed insufficiency of the testimony to justify a conviction. He renewed this motion upon completion of all the evidence. Both motions were denied. The Defendant waived the right to appellate review of the denial of his first motion when he elected to present evidence in his own behalf after the Justice had denied his motion. Glassman, Maine Practice, §§ 29.2, 29.6; State v. Tomer, Me., 304 A.2d 80, 85 (1973). We must test the Justice's denial of the Defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal made at the close of all the evidence against the following testimony which the jury was entitled to accept as fact: A corporation named Sherwood's Carpet and Color operates a retail shop on the first floor of a two story flatroofed building in Belfast. The second floor is divided into two housekeeping apartments. Access to the shop is by a front door on the High Street side or a back door which is reached by way of a flight of five steps in the rear of the building which lead to a small entryway and then into a hallway. The door to the shop is on the left of this hallway. A flight of stairs leads directly from this hallway to the second floor where the two apartments are located. At approximately midnight of the July night in question, the attention of two occupants of an apartment situated in a building directly in the rear of Sherwood's shop was attracted by an unusual noise coming from the shop. From their window they observed three men on or beside the steps leading into the building where Sherwood's was located. They watched two of them enter a car which drove away and then soon returned. Moments later, from another position, they were able to see the Sherwood's shop window and discern the head of a person who was moving about inside the shop. These neighbors notified the police department by telephone. Going immediately to the window again they saw the shapes of two persons in the shop and again called the police but before this call was completed the police arrived. The first policeman on the scene was Officer Rumney who went to the Sherwood's building and looked through a window. He was able by means of the night lights in the shop to see a man (whom he could not identify) in a schooched down position inside the shop. This man had long hair, curled at the back and wore dark clothing. The officer then went immediately to the entrance in the rear of the building. From ground level he could look through a wide entrance door and into the small hallway where with the assistance of his flashlight he could observe that the door to the shop was partially open and that the hasp which had served to secure the door was in an unusual position. At this point he heard a commotion from inside and the door to the shop opened further blocking the officer's view of the hallway, but it was immediately closed by a man who had emerged from the shop. When it closed the officer could see the man (whom he could not identify) starting up the stairs. When the second man came out of the shop and turned to close the door, the officer got an excellent full side view of him. This man was the Defendant, with whom the officer was well acquainted. The two men continued hurriedly to the top of the stairs, although the officer shouted to them to halt, and at the top they appeared to be wrestling with each other in their haste to get through a door there. Other officers arrived at about this time and one was stationed at the front of the building and one at this back door which was the only exit serving the second floor. During this time the civilian witnesses who kept the scene under observation saw no one leave the building. Officer Rumney and another officer then went up the stairs and found a man (partially dressed) and woman (in bed) in the first apartment. They looked into a small unoccupied storage area and then walked into the second apartment through an open door. A woman occupant of the apartment met them at the door and in an inner room they found two menone had long hair, curled in the back, wore dark clothing, and was breathing quite hard. Sitting on a couch across from him was the Defendant who had a big grin on his face. The Defendant was placed under arrest. In another room an intoxicated man was lying on the bed and beside him was a shirtless man with a haircut unlike that of the person the officer saw through the window. The Defendant elected not to testify but he presented the woman occupant of the apartment in which the Defendant was found. She testified that the Defendant and two of the other men in her apartment had arrived together a while . . . it could have been 15 to 20 minutes before the officers entered. It will be remembered that Officer Rumney said he made his identification of the Defendant while the officer stood at the foot of five steps leading to a little doorless porch, the depth of which he described as the width of the witness box. Beyond this was the door to the main building which was wide open and permitted a view of the hallway and the stairs leading to the second floor. The extent of unobstructed view of hallway and stairs which could be obtained by a person standing in Officer Rumney's position was disputed by the defense which presented a witness who had made extensive measurements of the structures. The State introduced as exhibits three photographs of the building, which were admitted without objection. Although one of these, apparently taken from the approximate position occupied by the officer, demonstrates a clear view through the entryway of the door leading from the hallway to Sherwood's and of the stairway immediately beyond it, the Justice admitted it with the caution that It is not to be used to show the visibility that any witness might have had looking up the stairs of anybody who might have been standing on the top of the stairs. That will depend upon testimony given you by witnesses and you are not to use this picture for that purpose. However, a study of this photograph strongly supports Officer Rumney's testimony that he had a brief clear and unobstructed view of the man whom he identified as the Defendant as he closed the shop door and turned to go up the stairs. When Mr. Sherwood left his shop at the close of work it was in good order, the safe was closed with the handles in a horizontal position, and a card table and a chair were placed against the back door and both front and back doors were locked. When he returned to the store at the request of the police shortly after midnight he found that the hasp with which the back door was padlocked had been torn away from the door jam and was hanging from the door. Inside, he found that the card table and chair had been overturned and the handles on the safe were now in a vertical position. Although the office contained articles of value, such as typewriter, mimeograph machine, etc., nothing had been taken away. The jury was entitled to find from the evidence and from inferences which they could reasonably draw that a forcible nighttime entry had been made into the Sherwood shop, that the intruders' intention was to steal things of value of the corporation which might be found there, that the intruders had fled up the stairs when Officer Rumney approached, that the intruders had not left the second floor thereafter and so were two of the six people the officers found on the second floor, and that Officer Rumney had reliably and correctly identified the Defendant as the one he saw leaving the Sherwood shop. The motion for acquittal at the close of the evidence was correctly denied.