Soto v. Commissioner of Correction

Citations

• 215 Conn. App. 113

Syllabus

The petitioner, who had been convicted of the crimes of criminal possession of a pistol and risk of injury to a child, sought a writ of habeas corpus, claiming, inter alia, that his trial counsel, C, had provided ineffective assistance. The police obtained a search warrant for the home of P, the petitioner's cousin, on the basis of a tip from a confidential informant indicating that P was in possession of a semiautomatic handgun. The petitioner was in the home when the police executed the warrant. The police discovered a semiautomatic pistol, which they later determined had been stolen, inside of a backpack that was in the closet of one of the bedrooms. After the petitioner became aware that the police had located the pistol, one of the police officers overheard him ask P in Spanish, ''quién va a tomar,'' meaning, ''who's going to take it.'' There- after, both the petitioner and P denied possession and knowledge of the pistol. The petitioner, however, admitted that he was staying in the bedroom in which the pistol was located, that his clothes were hanging in the closet, and that he had been in and out of the closet multiple times. Prior to trial, the petitioner rejected two offers to enter into a plea agreement, the first of which would have required him to serve three years of incarceration and the second of which would have required him to serve two years. Following trial, he was sentenced to a term of twelve years of incarceration. The petitioner filed a writ of habeas corpus alleging, inter alia, that C had rendered ineffective assistance by failing to meaningfully convey the plea offers and by failing to investigate and call the confidential informant as a witness. The habeas court denied the writ of habeas corpus, and, on the granting of certification, the petitioner appealed to this court. Held: 1. The habeas court's conclusion that the petitioner failed to prove that he was prejudiced by C's allegedly deficient pretrial advice was not improper: although C