State v. Benoit

The defendant was convicted in a trial by jury in the District Court of Vermont, Unit No. 2, Chittenden Circuit, on a charge of burglary in the nighttime of a gasoline station. He now appeals the trial court’s denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal made at the close of the State’s case. That the crime charged with all its requisite elements was committed is not disputed here. Rather, the claimed error rests on the proposition that the State’s evidence, wholly circumstantial in nature, was insufficient to establish the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime. We agree and reverse…