State v. Rodrigues

Opinion of the Court by

LEVINSON, J.

The defendant-appellant Ralph J. Rodri-gues appeals from the June 15, 2004 judgment of the circuit court of the second circuit, the Honorable Shackley F. Raffetto presiding, convicting him of theft in the second degree, in violation of Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 708-831(l)(b) (Supp.1998). 1 On appeal, Rodrigues asserts a single point of error, to wit, that, during its case-in-chief, the prosecution improperly commented on his alleged assertion of Ms right to remain silent by eliciting the fact that Rodrigues declined to allow his voluntary statement to…