Owens v. State

The defendant was found in his car sleeping with an empty can of beer in between his legs and empty beer cans in the back. The car was turned on, and the man was in a private driveway. A neighbor had called the police because the car was suspicious. The court could infer that either the man had just driven to where he was, in which case he broke the law and drove drunk, or else he was getting ready to leave, in which case he had not yet broken the law.

Whether the court can assume that someone is guilty when there the evidence is inconclusive.

Judgment against the defendant. The facts suggest that the man was likely recently driving, and not about to leave

A conviction upon circumstantial evidence alone is not to be sustained unless the circumstances are inconsistent with any reasonable hypothesis of innocence. For the State to prevail there must be some other factor that enhances the likelihood of the inference and to diminish the likelihood of the second.