State v. Thibeault

• Citation: 390 A.2d 1095
• Parties: STATE of Maine v. Dale L. THIBEAULT.
• Decision Date: 31 August 1978
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (US)

Page 1095

390 A.2d 1095

STATE of Maine v. Dale L. THIBEAULT.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Aug. 31, 1978.

David M. Cox, Dist. Atty., Gary F. Thorne (orally), John A. Woodcock, Jr., Asst. Dist. Attys., Bangor, for plaintiff.

Ford & Hall by Eugene W. Ford, III, Bangor (orally), for defendant.

Before McKUSICK, C. J., and POMEROY, WERNICK, ARCHIBALD, DELAHANTY, GODFREY and NICHOLS, JJ.

McKUSICK, Chief Justice.

Appellant Thibeault was indicted for receiving stolen property in violation of 17-A M.R.S.A. § 359 (Supp.1977). ¹ A Penobscot County jury found him guilty of receiving stolen property with a value in excess of $500, a Class D crime. We deny his appeal from the resulting judgment of conviction.

On the morning of May 26, 1976, the Bangor police department received an anonymous phone call informing them that stolen property was being moved into the residence of the defendant, Dale Thibeault, at 26 Market Street in Bangor. Officer Joseph Ferland drove to Thibeault's residence sometime shortly after noon on May 26 and knocked on the door. Mr. Thibeault answered the door. The officer informed Thibeault that he had received information that some furniture that was moved into Thibeault's house that morning was stolen. Thibeault voluntarily consented to the officer's inspection of the furniture, assisted him in obtaining a serial number from a TV set, and answered his questions concerning the origin of the furniture.

Mr. Thibeault told Officer Ferland that he had purchased the furniture from "Billy, I mean Charlie or Chuck O'Connors." Thibeault said he had paid $350 for the furniture but that he did not have a receipt. He also said that O'Connors lived on York Street and that the furniture was delivered in a green van. The police officer left Thibeault's residence and drove to York Street, where he tried unsuccessfully to locate an O'Connors or a green van.

On the following day Mrs. Charlene Gray of Lucerne, Maine, reported to the Bangor police that her home had been burglarized and some of her furniture stolen. With this information in mind, Officer Ferland returned to the Thibeault residence on the 27th. No one was home when he arrived shortly after noon. He observed the furniture through a window and concluded that it matched the description of the missing furniture given by Mrs. Gray. The Thibeault residence was placed under surveillance. At 10:30 p. m. Dale Thibeault was arrested when he returned home. He was taken to the Bangor police station where, after being advised of his Miranda rights, he made some incriminating but arguably ambiguous statements concerning his knowledge that the furniture was stolen. ² There was conflicting evidence at trial as to when Mr. Thibeault gained knowledge that the furniture was stolen. His counsel contended that he did not acquire this knowledge until after Officer Ferland visited his home on the 26th and that therefore the incriminating statements referred to knowledge gained only as of that time.

Given the testimony of the defendant's wife, Catherine Thibeault, the jury could have found that the furniture was first offered to the Thibeaults by a Bill Randall and a Charles O'Connell early on the morning of the 26th. Mrs. Thibeault testified that her husband objected to the price of $350 requested by O'Connell. She told O'Connell she would have to see the furniture first, and she then drove to O'Connell's place on York Street to inspect it. Apparently liking what she saw, she told him that he could bring the furniture to her apartment and she would go to the bank to see about a loan. She obtained a loan from the Merrill bank between 10 and 11 a. m. that morning and took the money with her to the restaurant where she worked. O'Connell was paid at 4 p. m. that afternoon when he came to collect the money.

On his appeal, defendant claims reversible error was committed in each of four respects: (1) that his constitutional right to trial before an impartial jury was impaired by juror knowledge of his previous status as a patient in a mental hospital; (2) that the trial justice erroneously instructed the jury as to the elements of the crime of receiving stolen property; (3) that there was insufficient evidence to support the finding that the recovered stolen property was worth more than $500; and (4) that a photograph, which did not accurately portray the recovered stolen property, was erroneously admitted into evidence.

We now proceed to consider each of these contentions in order.

I. Challenge to the Jury

Before trial the veniremen were questioned as a group concerning their acquaintance with the defendant. Three members of the panel said they had seen the defendant at the Bangor Mental Health Institute (BMHI). The trial justice wisely recognized that continued questioning of these three in the presence of the entire panel might lead to a general airing of prejudicial information. He refused to grant a defense motion to strike the entire panel and instead conducted further voir dire separately of each of the three individuals who had identified the defendant with BMHI.

One potential juror, Mrs. Sanders, who worked at the BMHI, said she had never talked with the defendant, did not know him, and was not aware of what his psychiatric condition was. The entire extent of her knowledge of the defendant, she said, was that she had seen him at the Institute. She testified she would not be influenced in any way in reaching an impartial verdict.

Defense counsel moved to excuse Mrs. Sanders for cause and the prosecution objected. The court denied the motion, noting that "The mere fact that she is an employee of the Bangor Mental Health Institute, would not in and of itself disqualify her unless it could be connected with the Defendant."

The other two veniremen questioned indicated that although they knew nothing of the defendant's mental condition, they were personally acquainted with him, and they preferred not to sit on the jury. Both were excused for cause.

All three veniremen were questioned as to whether they had discussed the defendant's hospitalization with other members of the jury panel. One indicated she had made a remark, overheard by Mrs. Bartlett, that she did not expect to end up sitting on the jury. Mrs. Bartlett was then questioned, and she answered that this comment in no way affected her ability to render an impartial verdict. A defense motion to excuse Mrs. Bartlett for cause was denied.

The trial justice conducted further questioning of all the prospective jurors. Five indicated they had inferred that the defendant had been at one time a patient at BMHI. All, however, said they were in no way affected by this knowledge. Defense counsel renewed his motion to strike the entire panel, but the motion was again denied. The jury was impaneled. The defendant used all his peremptory challenges, but two persons who had admitted they believed the defendant was a former BMHI patient were seated on the jury.

On appeal defendant argues that he was entitled to have a trial jury composed of persons who did not know of his status as a former patient at BMHI. He argues this knowledge was Per se prejudicial, regardless of the fact that the jurors testified it did not influence them, and that consequently his constitutional right to an impartial jury was violated. The right to an impartial jury is guaranteed all criminal defendants by the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution and by Article I, section 6 of our own Constitution of Maine. Christian v. State, Me., 268 A.2d 620, 623 (1970). In the alternative, defendant Thibeault maintains that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to grant his challenges for cause with respect to the jurors who admitted they believed Thibeault had once been in a mental hospital.

Whether a fact brought out on voir dire requires a new trial depends on whether the fact has "such high potential for ineradicable prejudicial impact upon those who ultimately become jurors as to deny to the defendant a fundamentally fair trial." State v. Gordon, Me., 321 A.2d 352, 368 (1974). We cannot accept the view that the mere fact that a defendant has undergone treatment at a mental hospital will always have such an ineradicable prejudicial impact. ³

We recognize that when jurors learn that a defendant has been previously arrested or convicted of a criminal offense, notwithstanding their assertions that they can still be impartial, justice requires that these jurors be excused if evidence of the prior conviction would not be admissible at trial. See Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. 310, 79 S.Ct. 1171, 3 L.Ed.2d 1250 (1959). But this case does not involve knowledge of a defendant's prior criminal record or anything that rises to a comparable level of inherent prejudice. There is no direct nexus between mental hospitalization and alleged criminal activity that parallels the relationship between a past conviction and a current criminal accusation.

The jurors in this case, at most, knew only that the defendant had once been in a mental hospital. They were not familiar with his treatment, diagnosis, or with his psychiatric problem which required hospitalization. Our holding today is confined to the narrow set of facts before us. We are unable to discern even the most tenuous link between mere mental patient status and the offense of receiving stolen property.

A century ago the United States Supreme Court said of juror challenges for cause:

"The affirmative of the issue is upon the challenger. Unless he shows the actual existence of such an opinion in the mind of the juror as will raise the presumption of partiality, the juror need not necessarily be set aside . . . ." Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 157, 25 L.Ed. 244 (1878), quoted with approval in Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 723, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961).

The determination of existence of prejudice is for the trial court to make. " 'The finding of the...