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State v. Burgess7/20/2001
t a male was driving intoxicated at a specific apartment building parking lot and had threatened to shoot another vehicle. The complainant provided the make, model, color, plate number and features of the vehicle. Officer Kelly verified the information with the complainant in a telephone conversation. The complainant's statements led Officer Kelly to believe that this was a very important case to follow up. Two days later, Officer Kelly returned to the apartment building, observed a male driving a vehicle that matched the description he was previously provided, and stopped the vehicle to ask the driver "what his side of the story was." Thus, the court did not err in finding that Officer Kelly's primary motivation for proceeding to the apartment building was to investigate the alleged criminal activity that had occurred two days earlier as described by the complainant, and was not to determine whether Burgess was driving under the influence on that day.
The specific details provided by the complainant coupled with the officer's verification of the information sufficiently justified the investigatory stop in order to follow up on the previously alleged criminal activity. See, e.g., Cushing, 602 A.2d at 1170 (finding the totality of the circumstances, including the information provided by the known informant, sufficient to justify the officer's investigatory stop of the defendants). Therefore, the court's finding was unquestionably correct that two days after receiving the tip Officer Kelly had a reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime had occurred. The stop did not violate the fourth amendment, and the court did not err in denying Burgess's motion to suppress.
II. MOTION FOR ACQUITTAL
Burgess also contends that the Superior Court erred in denying his motion to acquit on the habitual offender charge because the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to establish, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the parking lot driveway he was operating his vehicle on was a public way.
"When the improper denial of a motion to acquit is alleged, the question before us is whether there was legally sufficient evidence to support the guilty verdict." State v. Pierce, 2001 ME 14, 24, 770 A.2d 630, 637 (internal quotation marks omitted). To determine if evidence is legally sufficient, we consider "whether on the evidence as a whole, assessed most favorably to the state, no trier of fact could rationally find proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).
Because the factfinder could conclude from the evidence that Burgess admitted driving, necessarily on public ways, before arriving at the apartment house parking lot, we need not decide whether the parking lot and driveway are themselves public ways.
The entry is: Judgment affirmed.
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