State v. Welling

Defendant appeals from a Glacier County District Court judgment of conviction for burglary and from a finding at sentencing that he was a persistent felony offender.

*137First, he claims that an instruction impermissibly allowed the jury to infer that he acted with a criminal intent. (The jury was permitted to infer that he intended to commit a theft by the fact that he was apprehended while unlawfully in a bar after it had closed.) Second, he claims that the prosecutor unfairly prejudiced the jury against him by asking a witness, who was a lawyer, if he had ever defended the defendant. Third, he…