Court Opinion

ID: 9572344
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:41:01.735673+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:32:33.177387
License: Public Domain

*440HUDSON, Judge,
dissenting.
Having thoroughly scrutinized the transcript of the defendant’s trial, I find no evidence or testimony to support the element of these offenses that the alleged victim be actually deceived. The alleged victim was Tim Ward, the proprietor of the pawn shop in which the cameras were sold. He testified that when the defendant showed him the cameras, he was immediately suspicious that they were stolen, because one of them had a security device still attached. As soon as the defendant left the shop, Ward put the cameras “in the back” and called the Sheriff. He had given the defendant money for the cameras, for which he knew he would be reimbursed pursuant to his arrangement with the Sheriffs department, and he did not lose any money. He did not display the cameras for sale.
When asked why he accepted the cameras in November, in light of his suspicions, Ward responded: ’’Well, because I work closely with the Sheriff’s Department and I wanted to, you know, if they were stolen, I wanted to give them back to the owners.” Ward went on to testify, when asked if he knew who owned the cameras, that he “pretty much knew,” at the time of defendant’s December visit to the shop, because he had talked with Mr. Cole and “I knew that there was a problem with them.” Mr. Ward did not testify that he was deceived, or that he even considered the possibility that the cameras were not stolen. Thus, even in the light most favorable to the State, I see no evidence from which a jury could infer that Mr. Ward was in fact deceived. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.