ARTEMIO VEGA v. STATE OF ALASKA (2011)

NOTICE Memorandum decisions of this court do not create legal precedent.  See Alaska Appellate Rule 214(d) and Paragraph 7 of the Guidelines for Publication of Court of Appeals Decisions (Court of Appeals Order No. 3).  Accordingly, this memorandum decision may not be cited as binding precedent for any proposition of law.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND JUDGMENT

Artemio Vega appeals from his conviction for robbery in the second degree.¹  He argues that the evidence presented at his trial was insufficient to establish that he was one of the two men who robbed a man named Larry Nesteby.

To address this argument, “we view the evidence presented, and the reasonable inferences from that evidence, in the light most favorable to upholding the jury's verdict.” ²  We therefore describe the trial testimony as viewed in this light.

Nesteby testified that, before the robbery, he was sitting near a bus stop across the street from a Red Apple Market in Anchorage.   His friend, Agnes Griffy was seated on a bench a short distance away.

Clarence Woods came up to Nesteby and asked for a drink of whiskey, but Nesteby turned him down.   Then another man walked toward Nesteby.   Nesteby wasn't paying attention to the two men until someone hit him in the face, hard enough to knock him to the ground.   Nesteby did not see who had hit him, but he did not think that it could have been Woods, who was seated right next to him.   Then someone said, “[G]et his money,” and someone grabbed Nesteby's backpack.   When Nesteby was able to regain his feet, he saw two men hustling away with his backpack.

The next day, Nesteby went to Woods's house to recover his backpack, but Woods left in a Suburban without talking to Nesteby.   Nesteby then called the police, who found many items from Nesteby's backpack when they searched Woods's house and the Suburban.   Nesteby gave the police a description of the other man who was with Woods when Nesteby was robbed.   The officers then patrolled the area and found Woods with a man who matched Nesteby's description-Artemio Vega.

Agnes Griffy testified that she was present when Nesteby was attacked.   Griffy heard an argument break out, then she saw the two men running away with Nesteby's backpack.

Griffy knew Woods from the neighborhood, and identified him in the courtroom.   The day after Nesteby was attacked, she identified the other man who was present in a photographic lineup.   Officer Cameron Hokenson testified that he showed the photographic lineup to Griffy, and she identified Artemio Vega.

Vega made a motion for a judgment of acquittal at the conclusion of the State's case.   Superior Court Judge Philip R. Volland took the motion under advisement and later denied it in writing after the trial.   The jury returned guilty verdicts against both defendants at the conclusion of the trial.

We must uphold a guilty verdict if “a fair-minded juror exercising reasonable judgment could conclude that the State met its burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” ³  In this case, a reasonable juror could conclude that Vega was one of the robbers based on fair inferences from the trial testimony.

A juror could reasonably conclude that Vega was one of the two men who were present when Nesteby was robbed based on Nesteby's description to the police and Griffy's identification of Vega's photograph.   A juror could also reasonably conclude that Woods and Vega were the two men that Griffy and Nesteby saw running away with Nesteby's backpack after he had been robbed.   These inferences are supported by the evidence that Woods and Vega were found together the following day and by the property from Nesteby's backpack that the police found in Woods's house and vehicle.   Based on the combination of this evidence, a reasonable juror could ultimately conclude that Vega was one of the two men who robbed Nesteby.

We therefore AFFIRM the superior court's judgment.

FOOTNOTES

FN1. See generally AS 11.41.510(a)(1)..  FN1. See generally AS 11.41.510(a)(1).

FN2. Shorty v. State, 214 P.3d 374, 383-84 (Alaska App.2009)..  FN2. Shorty v. State, 214 P.3d 374, 383-84 (Alaska App.2009).

FN3. Id. at 384..  FN3. Id. at 384.

BOLGER, Judge.