Opinion ID: 1900548
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Corpus Delicti and Sufficiency of the Evidence

Text: The corpus delicti rule requires that admission of an inculpatory statement [1] made by the defendant be preceded [2] by proof that the crime charged was committed by someone. See State v. Grant, Me., 284 A.2d 674, 675-76 (1971). In meeting that corpus delicti burden, the State was not obliged to prove the commission of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, but merely to present sufficient credible evidence to support a substantial belief that the crime charged has been committed by someone. State v. Bleyl, Me., 435 A.2d 1349, 1367 (1981); State v. Anderson, Me., 409 A.2d 1290, 1300-01 (1979). The exact quantum of proof required is difficult to specify, but is less than a fair preponderance of the evidence. State v. Atkinson, Me., 325 A.2d 44, 45 n. 1 (1974). The Maine standard is in line with that employed in many other jurisdictions that have squarely faced the issue. See State v. Pineda, 110 Ariz. 342, 343, 519 P.2d 41, 42 (1974) (evidence must establish a reasonable inference of corpus delicti ); People v. Cantrell, 8 Cal.3d 672, 679, 105 Cal.Rptr. 792, 796, 504 P.2d 1256, 1260 (1973) (reasonable probability established by slight evidence); State v. Wilbur, 115 R.I. 7, 13, 339 A.2d 730, 734 (1975) (some corroborative evidence). We are not convinced that the presiding justice committed any reversible error in admitting defendant's extrajudicial statement. The justice's decision that the State had by then established corpus delicti was a preliminary determination of fact within the meaning of M.R.Evid. 104(a). Field & Murray, Maine Evidence § 801.7 (Supp.1980). On appeal the Law Court reviews such factual determinations preliminary to the admission of evidence by the clearly erroneous standard. See, e.g., State v. Viger, Me., 392 A.2d 1080, 1083 (1978) (expert's credentials); State v. Carter, Me., 391 A.2d 344, 346 (1978) (probable cause for warrantless search); State v. Parkinson, Me., 389 A.2d 1, 9 (1978) (probable cause for warrantless arrest). Use of the clearly erroneous test to review the trial judge's preliminary finding of fact recognizes the superior opportunity that he enjoyed to hear the evidence as it was presented through live witnesses and is consistent with the same policy by which deference is accorded to a trial court's factfindings in civil cases. Cf. M.R.Civ.P. 52(a); Flagg v. Davis, 147 Me. 71, 75, 83 A.2d 319, 321 (1951). See also Dunton v. Eastern Fine Paper Co., Me., 423 A.2d 512, 514-17 (1980). In Harmon v. Emerson, Me., 425 A.2d 978, 982 (1981), we recently stated the high hurdle that an appellant must clear to obtain a reversal of a finding by the trial judge: An appellate court can reverse a finding of fact only where (1) there is no competent evidence in the record to support it, or (2) it is based upon a clear misapprehension by the trial court of the meaning of the evidence, or (3) the force and effect of the evidence, taken as a total entity, rationally persuades to a certainty that the finding is so against the great preponderance of the believable evidence that it does not represent the truth and right of the case. On this record we cannot say that the presiding justice was clearly erroneous in his corpus delicti finding. Before making his corpus delicti finding, the presiding justice heard testimony that an infant of tender age had suffered a very serious head injury and that the crib in which she customarily slept had collapsed at a time when defendant had had the exclusive care and custody of her. From the testimony and exhibits, including the crib itself, that were already part of the record, the presiding justice could have concluded that the bedding in the baby's crib had been thick enough to prevent her from being badly hurt by an accidental collapse, and that the gap that opened between the mattress and headboard had not been large enough to permit the baby to fall from the crib. We cannot say that the presiding justice clearly erred in forming his substantial belief that the infant's injury was occasioned by crime rather than by accident. Admittedly, this case is unlike State v. Silva, 153 Me. 89, 134 A.2d 628 (1957), in which the Law Court held that a jury could infer the defendant's guilt from her exclusive custody of an abused child, because in that case the child had suffered a succession of mysterious injuries. However, we do not here deal with the ultimate issue of guilt, but merely with the threshold question of whether the evidence in the record prior to the time the State offered defendant's out-of-court statement justified a sufficient belief that a crime had occurred to permit admission of defendant's statement. On appeal defendant also takes nothing by his claim that the total evidence was insufficient to convict. Once his extra-judicial statement was properly received in evidence, along with his own in-court testimony, both with grave inconsistencies with the physical and medical evidence, the jury could rationally conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant had committed the crime of simple assault upon his baby daughter of tender age. See State v. Kelley, Me., 308 A.2d 877, 886 (1973).