Following a bench trial, Toddric Jamel Boyd appeals from his conviction of contributing to the delinquency of a minor while drinking beer with a 16-year-old friend in a park.1 Boyd contends that there was insufficient evidence to support the guilty verdict, both as to the offense itself and as to venue. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. When an appellate court reviews the sufficiency of the evidence, the relevant question is whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. This familiar standard gives full play to the responsibility of the trier of fact fairly to resolve conflicts in the testimony, to weigh the evidence, and to draw reasonable inferences from basic facts to ultimate facts. Once a defendant has been found guilty of the crime charged, the factfinder’s role as weigher of the evidence is preserved through a legal conclusion that upon judicial review all of the evidence is to be considered in the light most favorable to the prosecution.2 So viewed, the evidence shows that an officer received a call from dispatch reporting three young males drinking beer in an elementary school park late one September afternoon. The officer drove to the location and saw the three young men sitting on a bench: Boyd and Shannon Owens, who were both at least 21 years old, and 16-year-old A. K. The three males saw the officer drive up, and the officer briefly drove away to see if they would leave the area. When they did not, the officer returned and saw A. K. reach below the bench into a black plastic bag that the officer later determined contained six empty beer cans and six full beer cans. The officer approached the three young men and noticed the smell of alcohol coming from each of them. The officer asked them for identification and learned that A. K. was under the age for legal alcohol possession.3 The officer asked A. K. to blow into an Alco-Sensor, and A. K. complied, registering a .025 reading. Boyd explained that they had walked down to the park together from Owens’s nearby house, so they could “hang out” at the park. Shortly thereafter, the officer arrested Boyd and Owens and returned A. K. to the custody of his parents.
Boyd was indicted for one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and following a bench trial, he was found guilty by the trial court and sentenced to 12 months of probation and a $250 fine. He now appeals.
