Court Opinion

ID: 9543381
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:45:01.751242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:10:14.683000
License: Public Domain

COLLINS, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
While I agree with the Court that the State must meet its burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that criminal acts occurred and the defendant was involved in their commission, somewhere between its recitation and application of the applicable standard of review, the Court loses sight of the requirement that when reviewing challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence, the Court is constrained, by its own precedent, to review the evidence in the light most favorable to the State. See, e.g., State v. Tempesta, 617 A.2d 566, 567 (Me.1992); State v. Priest, 617 A.2d 537, 539 (Me.1992). Moreover, we have repeatedly held that criminal convictions may be based entirely on circumstantial evidence and are not, for that reason, any less conclusive. See, e.g., State v. Bowman, 611 A.2d 560, 561 (Me.1992); State v. Curtis, 552 A.2d 530, 532 (Me.1988); State v. Durgan, 467 A.2d 165, 167 (Me.1983).
The evidence presented in this case, when viewed in the light most favorable to the State, would support the fact-finder’s rational conclusion that the State had proved Ho Tai’s involvement in the criminal acts at issue beyond a reasonable doubt. At trial, the officer who discovered Ho Tai, testified that Ho Tai was hiding under the seat of the van when he was discovered. Clearly, this version of the facts is more favorable to the State than the version recited by the Court. Based on this fact, the presence of stockings similar to those used by the perpetrators, and the arrival of the van on the scene shortly before the commission of the crimes at issue, the jury would have been warranted in drawing the reasonable inferences that Ho Tai was conscious of his own guilt, and either the third gunman or an accomplice to the crimes at issue. See State v. Rouselle, 559 A.2d 779, 780 (Me.1989) (evidence of flight to avoid accusation or arrest, when viewed with other incriminating evidence, may demonstrate consciousness of guilt); State v. Jackson, 331 A.2d 361, 365 (Me.1975) (standard to be applied by jurors is “whether from all the evidence and such reasonable inferences as may properly be drawn therefrom the guilt of the defendant has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt”). I see little difference between the “flight” in Rouselle and the “hiding” in the present case.
Moreover, the jury would have been justified in rejecting outright, as it apparently did, the incredible evidence that tended to establish that Ho Tai was merely sleeping in the van. The record reveals that the van was parked in the middle of a crime scene where scores of people, including law enforcement personnel, victims and perpetrators, were milling about. Gunshots had been fired. The jury was entirely justified in rejecting Ho Tai’s “sound sleeper” defense. This Court, given our standard of *597review, should leave the fact-finding to the fact-finder and accept the fact-finder’s conclusion that Ho Tai was hiding, not sleeping. See, e.g., State v. Glover, 594 A.2d 1086, 1088 (Me.1991) (weight of the evidence and determination of witness credibility are jury’s exclusive province); State v. Lee, 583 A.2d 212, 214 (Me.1990) (same); State v. Park, 159 Me. 328, 333, 193 A.2d 1, 4 (1963) (jury is judge of facts). More importantly, we should not deviate from our long-standing precedent that permits the fact-finder to draw reasonable inferences from the evidence and convictions to stand on circumstantial evidence.
I would affirm the convictions.