State v. Dugas

Citation782 A.2d 888,147 N.H. 62
Decision Date09 October 2001
Docket NumberNo. 99-680.,99-680.
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
Parties The STATE of New Hampshire v. Peter DUGAS.

Philip T. McLaughlin, attorney general (Stephen D. Fuller, attorney, on the brief and orally), for the State.

Raimo & Murphy, P.C., of Manchester (Ray Raimo on the brief), and Shuchman & Krause-Elmslie, P.L.L.C., of Exeter (Lawrence A. Vogelman orally), for the defendant.

DUGGAN, J.

The defendant, Peter Dugas, was convicted of arson, see RSA 634:1 (1996), following a jury trial. On appeal, he argues that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction. The defendant also asserts that the Superior Court (Hampsey , J.) erred in: (1) admitting into evidence a statement he made to the Nashua Police Department; (2) excluding certain evidence; and (3) supplying the jurors with transcripts and audiotapes of his statements to the police as well as a videotape of himself, along with an audiotape and a videotape player. We affirm.

Just before midnight on October 23, 1998, the Nashua Fire Department responded to a building fire that had been reported by passersby. Upon arrival, the fire fighters found a fire inside a convenience store known as Dugas Superette. They gained entry through locked doors and determined that the fire was confined to the southeast corner of the basement.

After extinguishing the fire, fire personnel began an investigation to determine the exact cause and origin of the fire. They found no signs of forced entry into the building, no likely cause from electrical or mechanical systems, and no accidental cause. During the course of the investigation, an accelerant detection dog "alerted" on several papers that were part of business records stacked in the southeast corner of the basement. Testing of several samples revealed the presence of ignitable fluids, leading the investigators to conclude that the fire was intentionally set.

Dugas Superette is principally owned by Edgar Dugas, the defendant's father. In October 1998, the defendant managed the store and owned a minority share of the business. The store contained a basic grocery business with a fresh and fried seafood department run by the Dugases as well as separate concession areas for pizza and video rentals operated by others.

After responding to the scene, the fire department contacted the defendant's wife. She then notified the defendant who, at the time, was picking up his daughter at a movie theater near the store. The defendant immediately responded and assisted the fire fighters by providing information about the building.

Later, the defendant consented to a search of the building by the police. In their search, the detectives noted that an electrically powered clock had stopped at 10:44. An investigator later determined that the wiring that powered the clock failed due to the heat of the fire. The detectives seized a videotape from the store's camera surveillance system. The defendant agreed to interviews at the fire scene and later the next morning at the police station.

In a tape-recorded interview at the police station, the defendant described his role as manager of the store. He also described the two independently-operated concessions within the store, and identified and explained the role of each person who worked in the building the day of the fire. The defendant provided information regarding the store's security system, which included video cameras, motion detectors and alarms. The defendant then described his activities the day of the fire. He reported that he arrived at 8:00 a.m. and, except for an afternoon break, worked through the day, closing the store just after 10:00 p.m. He left with a pizza he had purchased from the pizza concession in the store and drove to the bank to make the night deposit. After arriving home, he ate, showered and then left to pick up his daughter at the movies.

During the interview, the defendant also reported that he was aware the building was covered by fire insurance but did not know what losses the policy covered or its limitations. When asked whether he had any problems with past employees, the defendant named Paul "P.J." Kulas. The police later determined that on October 23, 1998, Kulas and his family spent the evening dining at a restaurant in Nashua.

The police audiotaped a second interview with the defendant after they reviewed an enhanced version of the videotape seized from the store's surveillance camera video recorder. A camera located in the southeast corner of the store's main floor recorded activities within the store as they occurred at closing time on October 23, 1998. About three minutes after the lights were shut off and the defendant locked up the store, the defendant re-entered the store. He then proceeded to the rear office of the store, and exited the office within seconds. After leaving the office and turning off the light, the defendant disappeared from view for about one minute, then reappeared from the rear of the store and moved toward the front door. The defendant then walked very quickly back into the store. Thereafter the videotape recorded a blank field for approximately thirty minutes before it shut down completely.

In the second audiotaped interview, on November 12, 1998, the defendant again described his activities the evening of the fire. When asked whether he re-entered the store, the defendant stated that he did not re-enter the store after closing and locking up. When the police confronted him with pictures taken from the videotape depicting his re-entry, he questioned the validity of the pictures and refused to say anything more than "I did not light the fire, did absolutely not light that fire."

The audiotapes of the interviews and the videotape of the events prior to the fire were marked as evidence and submitted to the jury for review during deliberations. The jury returned a guilty verdict and this appeal followed.

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

We first address the defendant's contention that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. "In an appeal challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, the defendant carries the burden of proving that no rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence [in the light] most favorabl[e] to the State, could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Duguay , 142 N.H. 221, 225, 698 A.2d 5 (1997) (quotation omitted). The defendant does not challenge the State's evidence proving the fire was intentionally set; rather, he limits his challenge to the State's evidence proving he was the person who intentionally set the fire. This evidence he asserts was entirely circumstantial. "When the evidence presented is circumstantial, it must exclude all rational conclusions except guilt in order to be sufficient to convict." State v. Flynn , 144 N.H. 567, 569, 744 A.2d 1131 (1999). Applying this standard, however, does not relieve the defendant of his burden in challenging the conviction; "we still consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, and we examine each evidentiary item in the context of all the evidence, not in isolation." Duguay , 142 N.H. at 225, 698 A.2d 5 (quotation omitted).

At trial the defendant testified that on October 23, 1998, after locking up and setting the alarms, he left Dugas Superette around 10:10 p.m. As he and a store employee walked toward their cars, the defendant spotted a bag of trash that had been left outside. While he picked up the bag and placed it in the dumpster, the employee left the parking lot in her car. The videotape evidence showed that after throwing the trash into the dumpster, the defendant did not leave but re-entered the store. The videotape shows that once inside the store, the defendant walked into an office and turned on the light for a short time, and then walked toward the basement door before leaving the camera's field of view. When the defendant returned to the camera's view, he was moving quickly toward the back of the store just before the videotape ended.

When questioned by the police, the defendant, on more than one occasion, denied re-entering the store. Instead, the defendant reported that he drove to the bank at the Nashua Mall, and then straight home. In the police interview audiotaped November 12, 1998, the defendant several times specifically denied re-entering the store. When confronted with the videotape confirming that he re-entered the store, the defendant stated that he had "to question [the videotape] very, very much." In fact, it was not until he testified at trial that he admitted re-entering the store.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the State, this evidence reasonably excludes all other conclusions except guilt. First, the defendant testified and the videotape evidence confirms that he was the last person in the store before the fire was discovered. The defendant also testified that when he left the store, he locked the doors and set the alarms. The fire fighters testified that when they arrived at the scene they had to forcibly enter the store because each of the doors was locked, and the investigators found no other signs of forced entry. Thus, a rational trier of fact, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, could have found that the defendant was the only person who had the opportunity to set the fire.

Second, when questioned by the police, the defendant repeatedly denied re-entering the store. Based on his continued denial, even when faced with strong evidence to the contrary, we cannot say that it was unreasonable for the jury to conclude that the defendant's denial was an attempt to conceal his guilt. Cf. State v. Alexander , 143 N.H. 216, 223, 723 A.2d 22 (1998) (recognizing jury may infer culpable mental state based on defendant's efforts to deceive police).

The defendant argues that the evidence failed to exclude all rational conclusions other than guilt because it failed to exclude other people who also had the alarm codes and a key to the store. None of the...

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  • State v. Dugas, 99-680.
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of New Hampshire
    • 9 Octubre 2001
    ...147 N.H. 62782 A.2d 888THE STATE OF NEW PETER DUGAS No. 99-680. Supreme Court of New Hampshire. October 9, 2001. 147 N.H. 64 Philip T. McLaughlin, attorney general (Stephen D. Fuller, attorney, on the brief and orally), for the State. Raimo & Murphy, P.C., of Manchester (Ray Raimo on the br......

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