State v. Peirce

• Decision Date: 03 April 2019
• Docket Number: A162930
• Citation: 296 Or.App. 829,440 P.3d 98
• Parties: STATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Nathan Richard PEIRCE, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Oregon Court of Appeals

296 Or.App. 829

440 P.3d 98

STATE of Oregon, Plaintiff-Respondent,

v.Nathan Richard PEIRCE, Defendant-Appellant.

A162930

Court of Appeals of Oregon.

Submitted March 23, 2018.

April 3, 2019

Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, and Vanessa Areli, Deputy Public Defender, Office of Public Defense Services, filed the opening brief for appellant. Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, and Anne Fujita Munsey, Deputy Public Defender, Office of Public Defense Services, filed the reply brief for appellant.

Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General, and Susan Yorke, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief for respondent.

Before Armstrong, Presiding Judge, and Tookey, Judge, and Shorr, Judge.

TOOKEY, J.

The subject of this case is a vintage 1985 Suzuki moped. Defendant appeals a conviction for the unauthorized use of that vehicle (UUV). ORS 164.135.¹ On appeal, defendant assigns error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal on that charge, arguing that "[t]he evidence is insufficient to show that defendant knew that the moped was stolen."² We conclude that a rational factfinder could have found that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant knew this moped was stolen, and, therefore, the trial court did not err when it denied defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal. Accordingly, we affirm.

When reviewing the denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal, we review the facts in the light most favorable to the state and draw all reasonable inferences in the state’s favor to determine "whether any rational trier of fact, accepting reasonable inferences and credibility choices, could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt."

State v. Lupoli , 348 Or. 346, 366, 234 P.3d 117 (2010). Additionally, "when, as here, a defendant makes the [motion for judgment of acquittal] at the close of the state’s case, ‘the appellate court must consider all the evidence and if it is sufficient to sustain the conviction.’ "

State v. Bilsborrow , 230 Or. App. 413, 418-19, 215 P.3d 914 (2009) (quoting State v. Gardner , 231 Or. 193, 195, 372 P.2d 783 (1962) ). We present the facts consistently with that standard.

As relevant to this appeal, defendant was charged with UUV. The state alleged that defendant "unlawfully and knowingly took, operated, rode in, exercised control over, or otherwise used a motor vehicle, without the permission of the owner."

At trial, the state called the victim and Deputy Mintier as witnesses on behalf of the state. The victim was the owner of a "vintage" 1985 Suzuki moped that ran "perfectly." When the victim purchased the moped, the victim received service records and multiple bills of sale that documented the previous owners of the moped. In that condition, the moped was worth approximately $ 950 because the moped was titled and street legal. On May 28, 2015, the victim left the state to attend his grandmother’s funeral in California. When the victim returned home on June 2, the victim discovered that his moped was missing from his parking spot. The victim immediately reported the moped as stolen because the victim had not given anyone permission to use his moped.

On June 7, Mintier stopped defendant for speeding on a moped. As part of the routine procedure for conducting a traffic stop, Mintier ran the license plate and learned that the license plate came back to the victim’s stolen moped. Eventually, Mintier was able to determine that the moped that defendant was riding did not match the make and model of the moped registered to the license plate and that the moped that defendant was riding had not been reported as stolen. Although the moped that defendant was riding had not been reported as stolen, defendant admitted to Mintier that he had switched the license plate that was on the moped that he was riding with the license plate from a moped that was at defendant’s home.

When defendant and Mintier arrived at defendant’s home, Mintier found the victim’s moped with the license plate removed. Defendant told Mintier that he bought the victim’s moped off of Craigslist "about a week prior and had no way of contacting the seller." Defendant also stated that he did not have any emails, text messages, or phone call records that would help identify the seller, and that he could not provide the full name of the seller. Defendant produced a "highly suspicious" bill of sale that Mintier said would "set off some alarm bells" if he were purchasing a vehicle. A bill of sale generally has "[t]he full name of the seller, the date of the sale, the agreed price, * * * a statement releasing ownership of the vehicle to the new owner," a "full description of the vehicle, including the VIN number, any license plate information or title information, and contact information * * * for the previous owner and the new owner." Defendant’s bill of sale was handwritten on the back of a used 3" x 5" index card, identified the seller only as "Jerry W.," listed an address that did not belong to any structure, did not identify the model of the moped, did not identify the moped’s VIN or license plate number, and did not identify the buyer or contain defendant’s name or his signature.³ Additionally, the bill of sale listed the sale price as $ 100, but defendant told Mintier that he purchased the moped for $ 50. Defendant acknowledged to Mintier that $ 50 for this type of moped "seemed very cheap" and that the "bill of sale also looked suspicious." Defendant was arrested for the unlawful use of the victim’s moped.

When the moped was returned to the victim, "[t]he ignition had been brute forced * * * so you could start it with any key or anything that was like the shape of a key, a screwdriver, whatever." Additionally, "[t]he kick start magneto was broken and being held up with a bungee cord," the mirrors were missing, the milk crate attached to the back was missing, and the engine had been tampered with so the moped was "going faster than it’s supposed [to] legally be allowed to go, and it wasn’t getting nearly as good as gas mileage."

At the close of the state’s case, defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal, arguing that the state failed to prove that "defendant had actual, real knowledge that he lacked permission of the owner to use or possess" the moped. The trial court denied defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal.

Defendant then called his friend, Reidy, as a witness on his behalf. Reidy and defendant had known each other for 13 years, and they were both "mechanically inclined" and had knowledge about mopeds. During the time that Reidy had known defendant, Reidy had been convicted of unauthorized use of a vehicle, possession of a stolen vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, second-degree forgery, and possession of a controlled substance. Reidy testified that he came into possession of the victim’s moped when Reidy was "hanging out" with a woman that Reidy "was kind of * * * friends with at the time," and they "went over [to] a guy’s house [that] she knew," Robert. Reidy testified that he purchased the moped from Robert for $ 100, called defendant on defendant’s cell phone, and sold the moped to defendant "a couple of hours" later for "a couple hundred dollars." Additionally, Reidy testified that he received the same suspicious bill of sale from Robert and that he gave the bill of sale to defendant. As noted, the bill of sale listed "Jerry W." as the seller, not Robert, and Reidy’s name is not on the bill of sale. Shortly after defendant was arrested for using the victim’s moped, Reidy found out, but Reidy did not contact the police or the district attorney’s office to "say there’s been a misunderstanding" because the moped "was bought fair and square."

During his closing argument, defendant reiterated his contention that the state had failed to prove that defendant "had actual knowledge that this moped was stolen." The jury found defendant guilty of one count of UUV.

On appeal, defendant assigns error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal, reprising his argument that the state failed to prove that defendant actually knew that the moped was stolen. See State v. Bell , 220 Or. App. 266, 269, 185 P.3d 541 (2008) (because the indictment for UUV alleged that the defendant acted knowingly, "the state was required to prove that [the] defendant actually knew that the car was stolen" (emphasis in original)). Defendant compares the circumstances of this case to Bell , 220 Or. App. 266, 185 P.3d 541 ; State v. Shipe , 264 Or. App. 391, 332 P.3d 334 (2014) ; and State v. Korth , 269 Or. App. 238, 344 P.3d 491 (2015), cases in which we concluded that the evidence was insufficient to support an inference that the defendants knew that the vehicles they were using were stolen. In response, the state contends that those cases are distinguishable "because this case involves more and different circumstantial evidence that, when viewed together, would allow a factfinder to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant knew the vehicle was stolen."

"Thus, we must determine whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the state, a rational factfinder could have found that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant knew the [moped] was stolen." Korth , 269 Or. App. at 243, 344 P.3d 491. "The state may prove a defendant’s knowledge with circumstantial evidence and reasonable inferences flowing from that evidence." Id ."However, an inferred fact ‘must be one that a rational factfinder can be convinced follows beyond a reasonable doubt from the underlying facts.’ " Id . (quoting Bell , 220 Or. App. at 270, 185 P.3d 541 ). "Evidence is ‘insufficient to support an inference when the conclusion to be drawn from it requires too great an inferential leap—that is, when the logic is too strained,’ or when it ‘requires the stacking of inferences to the...