Court Opinion

ID: 9750879
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 15:43:53.72892+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:26.588228
License: Public Domain

LIPEZ, Justice,
with whom ROBERTS, Justice, joins, dissenting.
[¶ 15] I respectfully dissent because the evidence is sufficient to support Ketchum’s conviction. Moreover, the Court’s opinion reveals the need for clarifying the requirements the State must meet to gain the benefit of the statutory presumption set forth in 17-A M.R.S.A. § 361(2) (1983).5
I
[¶ 16] On July 29, 1994, eight Emmett Kelly figurines were stolen from the Country Store operated by William Haefele. Late that afternoon, the stolen figurines were recovered from Michael Curtis’s car in which Ketehum and Wayne Paschal were passengers. The jury could find that all three occupants of the car were in possession of the recently stolen figurines, provided there were additional circumstances indicative of guilt. Through the testimony of Lincoln Fenno, a registered dealer of the figurines, the jury learned that Ketehum and Paschal had been in Fenno’s store that afternoon. They were acting so suspiciously that Fenno followed them, noted the description and registration number of their car, and immediately called the sheriffs office. That call led to the interception of the vehicle by Sergeant Scott Kane. When questioned by Officer Kane, Ketehum admitted that he had been riding around Bar Harbor with Curtis and Paschal. Ketehum denied, however, that he had been in any stores while he was in Bar Harbor.
[¶17] Ketehum’s false claim that he had not been in any stores indicated a consciousness of guilt. That guilty state of mind, coupled with his suspicious behavior in Fen-no’s store, supplied the added circumstances sufficient to support the jury’s guilty verdict. See State v. Austin, 518 A.2d 1042, 1045-46 (Me.1986) (proof of mere presence in vehicle containing stolen goods, coupled with evi*920dence of suspicious activities' prior to commission of the offense, is sufficient to sustain conviction for burglary and theft). The Court errs if it is requiring that the evidence of the defendant’s constructive possession of the stolen goods found in the vehicle be contemporaneous with his presence in the vehicle. Such evidence can involve proof of conduct earlier or later in time. I would therefore affirm the conviction.
II
[¶ 18] Although the Court emphasizes the insufficient proof pertaining to Ketchum’s constructive possession of the stolen property, it quotes State v. DePhilippo, 628 A.2d 1057, 1060 (Me.1993), for the proposition that to gain the benefit of the statutory presumption relating to the exclusive possession of recently stolen property, in the absence of evidence of actual physical possession of the stolen goods by the defendant, the State must produce evidence establishing: (1) that the defendant constructively possessed the stolen goods; (2) the existence of other possessive conduct on the part of the defendant in relation to the stolen goods; and (3) that the stolen goods were “recently taken.” In this case there is no evidence of “other possessive conduct on the part of the defendant in relation to the stolen goods.” Id. (quoting State v. Durgan, 467 A.2d 165, 168 (Me.1983)). If this element of proof was, in fact, necessary to gain the benefit of the statutory presumption, I would agree with the court that there was insufficient evidence of Ket-chum’s guilt. In my view, however, the “other possessive conduct” requirement is an anomaly of Maine law that imposes a needless duplication of the constructive possession requirement.
[¶ 19] The law generally recognizes two kinds of possession, actual and constructive.6 DePhilippo, 628 A.2d at 1060. A defendant who has actual physical custody of the stolen goods is in actual possession of them. Id. “Constructive possession means that although one does not have actual physical custody of the goods, [the defendant] has dominion, authority or control over them.” Id. (quotation omitted). Maine’s common law rule permitting an inference that the person in recent possession of stolen goods committed the theft or burglary dates to the 19th century. See State v. Saba, 139 Me. 153, 27 A.2d 813 (1942) (citing State v. Merrick, 19 Me. 398, 400-01 (1841); State v. Russo, 127 Me. 313, 314-15, 143 A. 99 (1928)); see also 17-A M.R.S.A. § 361(2), Comment — 1975 (“Subsection 2 contains a rule that is already law in Maine.”); P.L. 1975, ch. 499, § 361. However, the first reference to evidence of other “possessive conduct” as a prerequisite for the inference when there is only constructive possession occurred in State v. Barrett, 256 A.2d 666, 669 (1969). In Barrett we declared that “[t]he jury under appropriate instructions might have found that the accused was in constructive possession of the shed and its contents [the stolen goods], but such possession alone is insufficient to raise the reference presumption” (emphases added). We went on, however, to articulate the necessary *921additional proof in terms of the standard definition of constructive possession:
If the presumption is supported it must rest on the possessive conduct of Barrett in helping Wiley transport the set for purposes of sale. This conduct in the light of all the surrounding circumstances could be found to be an exercise of dominion, control, and right of disposal jointly with Wiley, or with Smith, or with both, soon after the larceny and amounts to the possession upon which a reasonable presumption of guilt can be founded_ The reasonability of this presumption leading to a justifiable conviction for larceny is significantly bolstered by the testimony, pointing directly to the felonious act, that contrary to the alibi evidence, Barrett was with Wiley ‘uptown’ at the time of the larceny.
256 A.2d at 669 (emphases added). We never explained in Barrett why this additional evidence of the defendant’s dominion and control over the stolen item was not simply further evidence of the defendant’s constructive possession of the item. In fact, it was further evidence of constructive possession. It should not be a discrete element of proof.
[¶ 20] Nonetheless, in subsequent cases we referred to “possessive conduct” as an additional element of proof the State must provide to gain the benefit of the statutory presumption, and continued to do so even when application of the requirement revealed its redundancy. In State v. King, for example, we asserted that “[w]here constructive possession is shown ... exclusive possession may be found if the evidence shows some other 'possessive conduct’ on the part of the defendant,” and held that the jury’s finding of constructive possession was justified in part because of evidence that the defendant had invited a friend to look at the goods in the basement of an apartment to which he had unlimited access. 379 A.2d 131, 134 (Me.1977) (emphasis added). We then went on to explain that “[the defendant’s] possessive conduct or his exercise of dominion and control, is amply demonstrated by his acts of inviting people to the cellar to see the tools and by the presence of his fingerprint on one of the tools.” Id. at 134r-35 (emphases added). That is, we not only defined “other possessive conduct” in terms of what constitutes constructive possession, but we found the supposedly separate requirement to have been met by virtue of the same evidence used to prove constructive possession.
[¶21] We should stop perpetuating this redundancy. Constructive possession requires proof that the defendant has the ability to exercise dominion or control over the items at issue. Proof of possessive acts relating to those items — acts that go beyond mere presence — is one way to establish such dominion or control, and hence prove constructive possession. To require proof of other possessive acts independent of and in addition to the constructive possession requirement makes no sense.

. The statute states in relevant part:
2. Proof that the defendant was in exclusive possession of property that had recently been taken under circumstances constituting a violation of this chapter ... shall give rise to a presumption that the defendant is guilty of the theft or robbery of the property, as the case may be,....
17-A M.R.S.A. § 361. The "presumption" referred to in the statute must be read as a "permissible inference.” State v. Hillman, 565 A.2d 1012, 1013 n. 1 (Me.1989) (explaining relation to M.R.Evid. 303(c)); State v. King, 379 A.2d 131, 133-34 (Me.1977) (juries must be instructed in terms of "permissible inference” rather than “presumption”).

. Both actual and constructive possession may be sole or joint, State v. Bachelder, 403 A.2d 754, 761 (Me.1979). “Exclusive possession” would seem to be inconsistent with joint possession, but our case law suggests that in this context the word "exclusive” is intended to signify dominion and control rather than exclusivity per se. As the Court explained in Bachelder,
Notwithstanding the fact that the term "exclusive" possession might, in ordinary usage, imply that a defendant must be in "sole” possession of recently stolen property in order for the permissible inference to come into play, this Court has held that joint possession of stolen property by two or more persons may be deemed the exclusive possession of any one of them where there is evidence that the defendant "acted in concert” with the other person or persons in possession of the property as a "participant in the crime.” The inference of guilt may be drawn if the jury finds that the defendant made a "conscious assertion of possession,” or that the recently stolen goods were found in a location where they were placed " “by the act of the party [defendant] or [with] his undoubted concurrence.’"
403 A.2d at 761 (citations omitted); see also State v. Mosher, 270 A.2d 451, 454 (Me.1970) (noting that State v. Barrett, 256 A.2d at 668, stands for the proposition that joint possession may be exclusive where defendant's participation with others in the physical transportation of a stolen item and negotiation of its sale soon after the larceny constituted a joint "exercise of dominion, control and right of disposal” on which the statutory inference could be founded).