McFarlane v. State, No. 00-58.

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Wyoming
• Writing for the Court: HILL, Justice.
• Citation: 17 P.3d 31,2001 WY 10
• Parties: James Charles McFARLANE, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).
• Decision Date: 02 February 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-58.

17 P.3d 31
2001 WY 10

James Charles McFARLANE, Appellant (Defendant),
v.
The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff)

No. 00-58.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

February 2, 2001.

Representing Appellant: Sylvia Lee Hackl, State Public Defender; Donna D. Domonkos, Appellate Counsel; and Tina N. Hughes, Assistant Appellate Counsel.

Representing Appellee: Gay Woodhouse, Wyoming Attorney General; Paul Rehurek, Deputy Attorney General; D. Michael Pauling, Senior Assistant Attorney General; and Georgia L. Tibbetts, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

Before LEHMAN, C.J., and THOMAS, GOLDEN, HILL, and KITE, JJ.

HILL, Justice.

[¶ 1] Appellant, James Charles McFarlane (McFarlane), seeks review of his conviction for larceny, contending that the conviction must be reversed because there was insufficient evidence to sustain it. McFarlane contends that he was not appropriately charged, i.e., that the evidence may support a conviction for possession of stolen property, but not for the larceny itself. We disagree with his view of the evidence and affirm.

ISSUE

[¶ 2] The sole issue in this appeal is simply stated by both parties: Is the evidence sufficient to sustain McFarlane's conviction for larceny?

FACTS

[¶ 3] In September of 1998, Karla and Tony Doll took a 1997 Artic Cat Powder Special snowmobile to Dampier's Snowmobiles, Inc., in Newcastle, Wyoming, to be sold

17 P.3d 32

on consignment for a minimum price of $4,200.00. Mrs. Doll last saw the snowmobile at Dampier's on November 21, 1998. Mr. Doll died on January 8, 1999. On January 15, 1999, the day of Mr. Doll's funeral, Mrs. Doll's brother placed a call to Dampier's to inquire about the snowmobile. Mrs. Doll received a return call, reporting that the snowmobile had been stolen. The theft was reported to the Weston County Law Enforcement Center. Shortly after the snowmobile was reported as stolen, it was located at McFarlane's home. The reason the snowmobile was discovered so quickly is that a Newcastle police officer had been in McFarlane's house on January 8, 1999, on an unrelated but official matter, and that officer recalled seeing parts of a disassembled snowmobile, fitting the description of the Doll's snowmobile, in McFarlane's basement. The snowmobile had been cannibalized for parts, but law enforcement officers were able to identify it from its vehicle identification number (VIN). The motor, as well as many other parts of the machine, were gone. McFarlane told the police officers that he and a couple of friends had found the snowmobile in the city dump in October or November, and that the parts he possessed and turned over to the police were the parts he found at the dump. McFarlane's story was not corroborated by the testimony of the friends who were supposedly with him when he found the snowmobile, nor was his story corroborated by testimony of employees of the city dump, who testified that they had never seen the snowmobile nor McFarlane at the dump. The motor from the Doll's snowmobile was found in another snowmobile that McFarlane had sold to a third individual, Jason Bell, who happened to be the person who came to post bail for McFarlane. McFarlane initially claimed that the motor in that snowmobile was the same motor which was in it when he bought it from a dealer in Gillette. The State's evidence disproved that scenario and, during his testimony, McFarlane told a story about buying a damaged motor from an unknown seller during Thanksgiving Day weekend in 1998, and that it was possible that he accidentally put that motor into the snowmobile which he sold to Jason Bell

DISCUSSION

[¶ 4] McFarlane contends that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the conviction...