State v. Milner

Syllabus

Convicted, after a bench trial, of the crime of criminal possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting death of C, the defendant appealed to this court. An individual, R, who lived in a residence adjacent to the area where the shooting occurred, witnessed an individual shoot at C. Another witness, S, testified that the shooter, who was wearing a white tank top, pointed and fired a gun. The defendant was charged in connec- tion with the incident with murder and criminal possession of a firearm. He elected a jury trial on the charge of murder, and the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Thereafter, the court conducted a separate trial on the charge of criminal possession of a firearm, and the court found the defendant guilty. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the evidence was insufficient to sustain his conviction because the trustworthiness of his alleged inculpatory statements to a former friend, B, on which the trial court principally relied for finding him guilty, were not corroborated by substantial independent evidence, in violation of the corpus delicti rule; the defendant did not dispute that independent evidence tended to establish that a shooting occurred, that he was at the scene of the shooting, and that he was drinking with the victim at that location before the two engaged in a physical altercation, and the state adduced substantial independent evidence of the trustworthiness of the defen- dant's statements to B, including DNA and forensic evidence linking the defendant to the scene at the time of the shooting and S's testimony linking the defendant to a white tank top worn by the shooter, providing ample corroboration of the defendant's statements to B that he then possessed a firearm. 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that, even if the state had satisfied the requirements of the corpus delicti rule with respect to his statements to B, B's testimony and that of the state's other witnesses was too unrel