State v. Kerr

• Decision Date: 01 November 1983
• Docket Number: No. 196-81,196-81
• Citation: 143 Vt. 597,470 A.2d 670
• Parties: STATE of Vermont v. Merle Brian KERR.
• Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Page 670

470 A.2d 670

143 Vt. 597

STATE of Vermont v. Merle Brian KERR.

No. 196-81.

Supreme Court of Vermont.

Nov. 1, 1983.

Philip H. White, Orleans County State's Atty., Newport, for plaintiff-appellee.

Paul D. Jarvis of Blum Associates, Inc., Burlington, for defendant-appellant.

Before BILLINGS, C.J., and HILL, UNDERWOOD, PECK and GIBSON, JJ.

PECK, Justice.

Defendant was convicted by a jury of two counts of knowing and unlawful possession of regulated drugs (8 ounces of hashish; 137.0 grams of cocaine) in violation of 18 V.S.A. § 4224(f)(1), and one count of carrying a deadly weapon (a .357 magnum handgun) while committing a felony, against the strictures of 13 V.S.A. § 4005. He instituted a timely appeal to this Court; we affirm the conviction.

Defendant presents four issues for our consideration. First, he alleges the trial court erred in denying his motions for a judgment of acquittal made at the close of the State's case and at the end of the trial. Second, he challenges the charge to the jury on the issues of defendant's alleged false statements relating to guilty knowledge of the drugs and of the weapon. Third, he claims the court erred in permitting the State to present evidence of the total value of the drugs seized, when the unlawful possession charges did not include all of them. Fourth, defendant contends the lower court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence seized in the warrantless search of the bag containing the drugs and the gun.

At approximately 12:45 a.m. during the night of June 18, 1980, a United States Border Patrol Agent (agent) having secondary duties as a customs officer, was on patrol, driving westerly along a secondary or back road, known as Holland Road, in the Town of Derby, about one-half mile east of the Interstate 91 port of entry from Canada. At the point where the incidents material to this case commenced, Holland Road passes through a heavily wooded area and runs parallel to the Canadian border. It is intersected by an overgrown road, generally impassable to motor vehicles, commonly known as the "Old Road." This road crosses the border about forty-five feet north of the intersection, connecting with a Canadian highway running parallel to the border and the Holland Road, some one hundred yards north of the latter.

At this point and time the agent noticed a man standing in the tree line on the edge of the Old Road approximately fifteen feet north of the Holland Road intersection, and thirty feet south of the international border. The agent continued driving west until he was out of sight of the intersection, then turned and drove back the way he had come, passing the intersection in an easterly direction. Again he observed the same person he had seen a few minutes earlier, but nearer to the Holland Road pavement. As the car approached, the person darted from sight in a northerly direction along the Old Road.

The agent continued easterly for about a mile, turned his car around, extinguished his lights, and again drove westerly on the Holland Road. As he came near the intersection once more he turned on his lights and saw the same person again, this time carrying a bag in his left hand. As the car approached, the person dropped the bag and walked toward the vehicle. The agent stopped; upon his request the man identified himself as Merle Kerr, the defendant, a United States citizen and a resident of the nearby Town of Morgan.

Satisfied as to identification and citizenship, the agent released the defendant, who walked away rapidly in an easterly direction on the Holland Road, making no effort to retrieve the bag he had dropped. The agent then walked to the bag, which proved to be a dark green opaque plastic garbage bag tied at the top. He ripped it open, and found inside a brown paper bag containing a .357 magnum handgun, the weapon which was the subject of the third count charged against defendant, and another paper bag. Inside this bag were several envelopes and two smaller plastic bags, one of which contained what appeared to be hashish, and the other a white powdered substance.

With the discovery of this potential evidentiary material, the agent drove after defendant and found him some distance away trying to hitchhike a ride; he detained him and called the state police. The police took defendant to the Derby barracks and advised him of his Miranda rights, which he waived. He denied both knowledge and possession of the bag and its contents throughout all investigatory proceedings, but did not take the stand at trial.

Police investigation developed certain other probative evidence which was introduced at the suppression hearing and later during trial. This evidence included testimony that heel prints corresponding to the boots worn by defendant were discovered in the area where the agent first saw him, and that defendant's pants were wet from the knees down at the time of his arrest, consistent with the path of footprints later discovered in the wet high grass along the Old Road.

Additional testimony indicated that the various bags and envelopes seized contained 320.3 grams or 11.3 ounces of hashish, 137.05 grams or 4.84 ounces of cocaine, and other unregulated substances. The total value of all the regulated drugs seized was estimated by police at $20,000.00 to $35,000.00. However, the values of the hashish and cocaine that were actually made the subject of the first two counts were $800.00 and $1,000.00 respectively.

There was testimony also that if, as defendant claimed, he had been merely hitchhiking to his home, there was a much more direct, better travelled, and more logical route for doing so than on the Holland Road, especially at that hour of the night.

I.

Defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his motions for acquittal made at the close of the State's case, and again at the conclusion of the trial. He claims that the State failed to prove guilty knowledge of the contents of the garbage bag beyond a reasonable doubt. In other words, he argues that the State presented no evidence that he knew the bag contained either the regulated drugs as charged in counts one and two, or the handgun which was the subject of the third count.

A.

In viewing the issue of knowledge as it relates to the drugs contained in the plastic garbage bag, there is no question that the State is required to establish knowledge in order to sustain a conviction under 18 V.S.A. § 4224(f)(1)(B). Scienter on the part of a defendant is an essential element of the offense.

In the instant case, defendant argues there was insufficient evidence to justify a jury verdict against him on the issue. He contends that the jury must have engaged in speculation and conjecture in reaching its verdict on the element of knowledge, and this is not proper. State v. Savo, 139 Vt. 644, 646-47, 433 A.2d 292, 293 (1981). We acknowledge the principle as correct as far as it goes. However, we disagree with defendant as to its applicability to the circumstances of this case.

It is well established that the guilt of a defendant in a criminal case may be proved by circumstantial evidence alone, if that evidence is proper and sufficient in itself. State v. Colby, 140 Vt. 638, 641-42, 443 A.2d 456, 457 (1982). If the rule were otherwise most premeditated offenses, particularly the more serious and well-planned criminal adventures, would be impossible to prove. Id. The law is not so naive that it permits its violators to hide behind "speculation and conjecture" in the presence of sufficient facts and circumstances to justify an inference of guilt, or more particularly in this matter, of guilty knowledge.

The standard of proof is the same whether the evidence is direct or circumstantial: the facts necessary to establish the elements of a crime must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Joyce, 139 Vt. 638, 639, 433 A.2d 271, 272 (1981). And this proof of facts includes reasonable inferences properly drawn therefrom. State v. Olds, 141 Vt. 21, 26, 443 A.2d 443, 445 (1981).

The question to be resolved in this matter on the element of knowledge reduces to an inquiry into the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the conviction. Addressing the question in the light of the evidence most favorable to the State as the prevailing party, and excluding modifying evidence, State v. Eaton, 134 Vt. 205, 206, 356 A.2d 504, 504 (1976), we hold that the evidence as disclosed by the record was enough to permit the jury to find the requisite criminal knowledge beyond a reasonable doubt. The lateness of the hour, defendant's proximity to the border and the remoteness of the location in which he was discovered, his furtive conduct throughout, his efforts to disassociate himself from the bag, the credibility of his own claims and explanations as given to the police, and substantial evidence indicating that he had in fact just crossed the border, all of these factors taken together constitute sufficient evidence of guilty knowledge to sustain the verdict.

Finally, we are not persuaded by defendant's argument that he might have been a mere courier with no knowledge of the specific contents of the bag. This claim can be made in any similar instance, and in some situations may have merit. In the instant case, however, the evidence was more than enough to go to the jury on the credibility of such a claim.

B.

Turning to the issue of knowledge as it relates to the handgun, the Vermont statute controlling the offense of carrying a weapon while committing a felony, 13 V.S.A. § 4005, differs from the statute relating to the possession of regulated drugs. The drug possession statute, as noted above, requires that an accused "knowingly" possess the contraband. On the other hand, the weapon statute does not contain any language which expressly requires knowledge. The latter statute reads in part:

A person who carries a dangerous or deadly weapon, openly or concealed, while committing a felony...