Mutcherson v. State
| Decision Date | 27 June 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-02314,95-02314 |
| Citation | 696 So.2d 420 |
| Parties | 22 Fla. L. Weekly D1545 Barry Denard MUTCHERSON, Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Amy Porinchak Thornhill, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Stephen D. Ake, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
Barry Mutcherson appeals his convictions for three burglaries and three petit thefts. In separate trials, he was convicted of the three similar burglaries because his fingerprints were found on vandalized gum ball machines. A single fingerprint in a public place is usually insufficient evidence to prove the identity of a perpetrator. We conclude, however, that the cumulative finger and palm prints, from both of Mr. Mutcherson's hands, found on unusual locations on these broken machines constituted sufficient evidence to support the convictions in this case.
Someone burglarized the Penny Saver grocery store on 34th Avenue in Tampa on July 7, 1994, at about 4 a.m. Apparently using a large stone, the burglar broke through the front plexiglas door. Inside the store, the burglar vandalized a gum ball machine and two other machines. The machines were taken from their racks and the glass containers were found broken on the floor. The quarters in the machines and two rolls of quarters in the cash register were stolen.
The police investigated the crime and obtained fingerprints from the broken machines. No fingerprints were obtained from the front of the machines, where customers would likely touch them. Instead, prints were found on the right rear glass, as well as the tops and bottoms of the machines. The prints that could be identified came from Mr. Mutcherson's left palm.
Eleven days later, someone burglarized the Silver Ring Cafe on 7th Avenue in Ybor City at approximately 4 a.m. The burglar broke the front glass window with a rock. When the owner first inspected the cafe, he did not think anything was missing. A few hours later, a gum ball machine was found behind an adjacent business. Fingerprints were obtained from the top and the sides of this machine. These prints were identified as Mr. Mutcherson's left index finger and partial palm print.
Four days after the Silver Ring burglary, someone burglarized the Continental Deli on 7th Avenue in Ybor City at approximately 4 a.m. The burglar broke the front plexiglas door and vandalized a gum ball machine. Fingerprints were obtained from the side and the base of this gum ball machine. Although some of the prints obtained had no comparison value, all of the identifiable prints belonged to Mr. Mutcherson. These prints matched his right index and right middle fingers.
When Mr. Mutcherson was arrested on August 11, 1994, he had 74 quarters, 40 dimes, 60 nickels, and 1 penny in his pockets.
In each trial, the jury heard testimony about the offense charged in the information and then learned about the other two burglaries as Williams 1 rule evidence. Each jury was informed of the large quantity of change Mr. Mutcherson had at the time of his arrest. Mr. Mutcherson was convicted of the charged burglary and petit theft in each case. The trial court sentenced him as a habitual offender to a total of 10 years' imprisonment, to be served consecutively to a sentence in an unrelated case.
Mr. Mutcherson argues, in each case, that the series of fingerprints was insufficient to prove a prima facie case of burglary, that the other burglaries should not have been introduced as Williams rule evidence, and that the coins in his pockets were inadmissible evidence. We reject all three arguments.
First, we recognize that a single fingerprint in a public location is not sufficient to establish the identity of the burglar. C.E. v. State, 665 So.2d 1097 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996); Lee v. State, 640 So.2d 126 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994); Amell v. State, 438 So.2d 42 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983). Unless there is other evidence of identity, the state must show that the prints could have been made only at the time the crime was committed. Amell, 438 So.2d at 42. This case involves three sets of fingerprints on vandalized machines under circumstances strongly suggesting that they were not the prints of a customer, but of a thief. Although we have located no precedent directly on point, we conclude that this cumulative evidence is sufficient to establish that Mr. Mutcherson committed the burglaries. Had the prints been on the front of all three machines, the outcome might be different.
Fingerprint evidence is merely a variety of circumstantial evidence. Where circumstantial evidence is the only evidence available, the jury must determine whether that evidence excludes all reasonable hypotheses of innocence after the trial court makes the determination that competent evidence of guilt exists. State v. Law, 559 So.2d 187, 189 (Fla.1989). Under Law, we conclude that the circumstantial evidence identifying Mr. Mutcherson as the burglar in these cases was sufficient to create a question for the jury to resolve.
The only issue involving circumstantial evidence in all of these cases is the identity of the burglar. The circumstances strongly suggest that all three crimes were committed by a single burglar. If this case involved only a single print on one machine at one store, it is clear that such circumstantial evidence would be insufficient. On the other hand, if this case involved one hundred burglaries,...
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Jackson v. State
...2d DCA 1999), and another case in which the defendant's fingerprints were found on a gumball machine in a store, Mutcherson v. State, 696 So.2d 420 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997).Instead, this case is more comparable to Darling v. State, 808 So.2d 145, 157 (Fla.2002), in which the circumstantial eviden......
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Bedoya v. State
...evidence. See Thorp v. State, 777 So.2d 385 (Fla.2000); Washington v. State, 653 So.2d 362 (Fla.1994); Mutcherson v. State, 696 So.2d 420, 422 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997) ("Fingerprint evidence is merely a variety of circumstantial evidence."). Premeditation may be established by circumstantial evid......
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Miranda v. State
...at the scene at the time of the murder. See id. at 483;Hill v. State, 973 So.2d 655, 655–56 (Fla. 2d DCA 2008); Mutcherson v. State, 696 So.2d 420, 422 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997); cf. Burkell, 992 So.2d at 851–52 (distinguishing Ballard based on footprint evidence establishing that defendant had be......
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Shores v. State, 99-1149.
...made it clear that the fingerprint evidence alone would have been insufficient for a conviction. Similarly, in Mutcherson v. State, 696 So.2d 420 (Fla. 2d DCA 1997), the second district observed that a single fingerprint on a gumball machine which had been broken into, inside a store which ......