Background

• Defendant Brian Craig posted a series of April 2012 Facebook Notes directed at the victim after being served with a domestic violence restraining order.
• The letters and stalking warning, a no-trespass notice, and a temporary restraining order were issued in April 2012 in response to the victim's complaints.
• The restraining order required no contact, including by any form of electronic communication.
• The victim read the defendant’s public Facebook posts, alarmed by the language and references to her, and reported them to police.
• Craig was indicted on witness tampering, stalking, and criminal threatening after the posts; he challenged only the sufficiency of the stalking and witness-tampering evidence.
• A Superior Court jury convicted Craig on all three counts; on appeal he challenged only the stalking and witness-tampering sufficiency arguments, which the court rejected.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• State v. Germain, 165 N.H. 350 (2013) (establishes standard for sufficiency on appeal)
• State v. Kay, 162 N.H. 237 (2011) (de novo review for sufficiency; circumstantial evidence permitted)
• Deyeso v. Cavadi, 165 N.H. 76 (2013) (statutory interpretation reviewed de novo)
• Landry v. Landry, 154 N.H. 785 (2007) (statutory language given broad meaning)
• O’Leary v. State, 109 So. 3d 874 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2013) (posting threats on public page can constitute sending to victim)
• Rios v. Ferguson, 978 A.2d 592 (Conn. Super. Ct. 2008) (YouTube posting directed at victim can constitute targeted communication)
• Commonwealth v. Butler, 661 N.E.2d 666 (Mass. App. Ct. 1996) (indirect communication can violate no-contact orders)
• State v. Kidder, 150 N.H. 600 (2004) (broad construction of protective-order statutes)
• State v. DiNapoli, 149 N.H. 514 (2003) (requires proof that the testimony sought to be induced is false)