Commonwealth v. French (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-158-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 14-P-1257 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. ERIC S. FRENCH. No. 14-P-1257. Hampden. May 13, 2015. – October 9, 2015. Present: Trainor, Agnes, & Blake, JJ. Breaking and Entering. Larceny. Practice, Criminal, Required finding. Evidence, Fingerprints, Identification. Identification. Complaint received and sworn to in the Springfield Division of the District Court Department on September 27, 2013. The case was heard by Christopher P. LoConto, J. Joseph Visone for the defendant. Alyson Yorlano, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. BLAKE, J. Following a jury-waived trial, a judge of the District Court found the defendant guilty of breaking and entering in the daytime with the intent to commit a felony, and larceny of property over $ 250. On appeal, the defendant argues that absent additional evidence linking him to the crimes, a latent fingerprint was legally insufficient to support the convictions. Because we conclude that the Commonwealth did, in fact, present further circumstantial evidence, we affirm the defendant’s convictions. Background. The undisputed facts are as follows. On August 30, 2013, Albano’s Market in the city of Springfield closed at 6:00 P.M. When the proprietor left, the door was locked and all windows were in place. She returned early the following morning after she was informed that there was an open window at the store. Once at the store, both she and a police officer noted that a plexiglass windowpane had been removed from its frame and left leaning against the front door of the store. The empty window frame was about two and one-half feet wide, over six feet from the ground at its highest point, and located to the right of the store’s front door. Beneath the window frame was a “little knee wall.” The police officer also observed a milk crate in front of the same door, which he surmised the thief had used to gain entry into the store. Items inside the store had been knocked to the floor from their shelves. The proprietor reported that cigarettes were missing, the value of which was about $ 400 to $ 500, in addition to an undetermined amount of change. The subsequent police investigation yielded latent fingerprints “around the sides” of the upper half of the plexiglass windowpane, “like if you lifted it and put it to the side.”[1] Springfield police Detective Juan […]