State v. Curtis
| Decision Date | 20 June 2019 |
| Docket Number | Docket: Pis-18-417 |
| Citation | 210 A.3d 834,2019 ME 100 |
| Parties | STATE of Maine v. Timothy D. CURTIS |
| Court | Maine Supreme Court |
Jeffrey C. Toothaker, Esq. (orally), Ellsworth, for appellant Timothy D. Curtis
Marianne Lynch, District Attorney, and Mark A. Rucci, Asst. Dist. Atty. (orally), Prosecutorial District V, Bangor, for appellee State of Maine
Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and ALEXANDER, MEAD, GORMAN, JABAR, HJELM, and HUMPHREY, JJ.
[¶1] Timothy D. Curtis appeals from a judgment of conviction entered by the trial court (Piscataquis County, Anderson J. ) after a jury found him guilty of theft by unauthorized taking of a firearm (Class B), 17-A M.R.S. § 353(1)(B)(2) (2018), domestic violence criminal threatening (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 209-A(1)(A) (2018), domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon (Class C), 17-A M.R.S. §§ 209-A(1)(A), 1252(4) (2018), domestic violence assault (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 207-A(1)(A) (2018), and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 1107-A(1)(C) (2018).1 Curtis challenges the sufficiency of the evidence and an evidentiary ruling made by the trial court.2 We affirm the judgment.
[¶2] Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State, the jury could have found the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt. See State v. Nobles , 2018 ME 26, ¶ 2, 179 A.3d 910.
[¶3] On December 26, 2017, Curtis and a friend spent the day bobcat hunting in central Maine. When the friend arrived home that evening, he realized that he could not find the .22 caliber pistol he had taken with him on the trip that day. The following day, the friend and Curtis returned to the locations where they had previously hunted to look for the gun in the snow, but were unable to locate it. Curtis helped the friend look for the gun on several subsequent occasions, but they could not find it, even with a metal detector. The friend put up signs around the general area where they had been hunting seeking the lost gun and offering a reward for its recovery.
[¶4] At the time of the hunting trip, Curtis lived with his girlfriend and her two sons at a house in Sangerville. On January 8, 2018, while Curtis and the girlfriend were having an argument, the girlfriend's younger son—who was seventeen at the time—came out of his bedroom to check on his mother. Curtis was just a few feet away from the younger son and, upon seeing him, Curtis "puffed up," stepped toward the boy, and angrily inquired "do you want some of this?" This frightened the younger son and prompted him to retreat to the doorway of his bedroom.
[¶5] After the incident, the girlfriend told Curtis that she wanted him to leave the house and no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him. The girlfriend spent that night in the younger son's bedroom because she did not want to be around Curtis and was concerned about the younger son's safety after Curtis confronted him. Curtis hollered outside the door of the younger son's bedroom,
[¶6] The following morning, Curtis got up early and left to go hunting with his friend. The girlfriend went to a friend's house because she needed to talk with someone. While at her friend's house that afternoon, the girlfriend received a series of threatening text messages from Curtis, such as "U better calll me b4 u regret it," and "Ur pissin off the wrong bull." Curtis also called her and angrily demanded that she come home immediately.
[¶7] Concerned for the safety of her sons, the girlfriend returned to the house and found Curtis—in a bout of apparent mania—sweeping and mopping the floors. The girlfriend knew that Curtis used Suboxone
without a prescription and would act "very manic" if he took too much of the drug. The girlfriend and her sons avoided interacting with Curtis that evening, but when she attempted to sleep in the younger son's bedroom again, Curtis insisted that she sleep with him. The girlfriend agreed out of a desire to avoid further conflict.
[¶8] Once they were in their bedroom, Curtis would not let the girlfriend sleep; he kept asking her why she was treating him that way, calling her names like "dumb c--t," and begging her to have sex with him. When the girlfriend tried to leave the room, Curtis grabbed her by the hair and shook her head aggressively. He also grabbed her by the back of the neck and, at a different moment, held her down against the bed while grasping the front of her neck. Every time he hurt her, he would apologize and then revert to calling her names and demanding sex.
[¶9] Curtis continued to act irrationally throughout the night. He told the girlfriend at one point that he was going to kill her and everyone in the house. He also took out a gun from underneath the mattress—a pistol the girlfriend had never seen before—and cocked it. Terrified, the girlfriend asked him if he was going to kill her and he said "no, I'm not going to kill you." He put the gun back under the mattress and resumed berating her. Eventually, Curtis took the gun out again, waved it around, and alternately pointed it at himself and the girlfriend. After he put the gun away, she remained with him because she "just wanted the night over with," and "knew that he would not give up." When Curtis fell asleep, the girlfriend lay awake next to him, too scared to leave the room; she prayed "that he would leave in the morning to go hunting."
[¶10] On the morning of January 10, 2018, Curtis's friend arrived at the house at approximately 7:00 a.m. to pick up Curtis for another hunting trip. After waiting to make sure Curtis was really gone, the girlfriend came out of the bedroom and went downstairs. Still shaken and frightened that Curtis might return, the girlfriend told her older son—who was eighteen—what had happened during the night and said that they all had to leave the house as soon as possible. The older son immediately called 9-1-1.
[¶11] While waiting for the police to arrive, both sons worked to quickly gather Curtis's weapons—which included multiple rifles, a crossbow, and knives—but were unable to locate the pistol Curtis had used to threaten the girlfriend. They continued to look even after the police arrived, and eventually spotted the pistol underneath Curtis's bureau in the bedroom. A police officer retrieved the pistol and determined that there was a round in the chamber and bullets in the clip.
[¶13] While the friend was speaking with the police after Curtis's arrest, the subject of the friend's missing pistol came up. He was able to provide police with a serial number that matched the one on the pistol that was found under Curtis's bureau, and to positively identify the gun in person. The friend had never given Curtis permission to take the gun, and Curtis never told the friend that he had it.
[¶14] In June 2018, Curtis was charged by indictment with theft by unauthorized taking of a firearm (Class B), 17-A M.R.S. § 353(1)(B)(2), domestic violence criminal threatening (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 209-A(1)(A), domestic violence criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon (Class C), 17-A M.R.S. §§ 209-A(1)(A), 1252(4), aggravated assault (Class B), 17-A M.R.S. § 208(1)(C) (2018), domestic violence assault (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 207-A(1)(A), violation of condition of release (Class E), 15 M.R.S. § 1092(1)(A) (2018), and unlawful possession of scheduled drugs (Class D), 17-A M.R.S. § 1107-A(1)(C). Curtis pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
[¶15] The case proceeded to a jury trial in July 2018. Before the trial began, the court agreed to sever the count charging a violation of condition of release at Curtis's request, and Curtis waived his right to a jury trial on that count. During trial, the court dismissed the aggravated assault count at the State's request. After a two-day trial, the jury found Curtis guilty of all the remaining counts. After the jury was excused, the court found Curtis guilty of the count of violation of condition of release.
[¶16] At the sentencing hearing, the court entered a judgment of conviction, sentencing Curtis to seven years of imprisonment with all but three years suspended on the conviction for theft of the firearm—which, as a Class B crime, was the highest charged offense—and three years of probation. The court imposed lesser, concurrent sentences on the remaining counts.3
[¶17] Curtis timely appealed. See 15 M.R.S. § 2115 (2018) ; M.R. App. P. 2B(b)(1).
[¶18] "We review a criminal defendant's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence to support a conviction by viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the State and determining whether a trier of fact rationally could find beyond a reasonable doubt every element of the offense charged." State v. Tieman , 2019 ME 60, ¶ 19, 207 A.3d 618. When undertaking such a review, "[w]e defer to all credibility determinations" made by the jury, State v. Cummings , 2017 ME 143, ¶ 12, 166 A.3d 996, and will "not intrude on the jury's role to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts," State v. Hansley , 2019 ME 35, ¶ 22, 203 A.3d 827.
[¶19] Curtis contends that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of unlawful possession of scheduled drugs. He asserts that although he was charged with possession of Suboxone, the State presented evidence only that he was in possession of Suboxone strips, and...
To continue reading
Request your trial