State v. Angel A.

Citations

• 235 Conn. App. 635

Syllabus

Convicted, following a jury trial, of attempt to commit murder and other crimes, the defendant appealed. He claimed, inter alia, that the trial court violated his right to jury unanimity by discharging the jury after accepting its verdict but before disclosing to the parties that one of the jurors had made an ex parte comment to the court in the deliberation room that she felt ''a little guilty about the attempted murder charge.'' Held: The defendant's unpreserved claim that the trial court violated his right to jury unanimity failed under the third prong of State v. Golding (213 Conn. 233), as the juror's comment was simply a statement about how she felt about the verdict that could not reasonably be construed as an equivocation or expression of reservation about it and did not indicate that she or any other juror had not agreed to the verdict, and, because this court could not infer that the juror intended her comment to inform the trial court that the jury's verdict was not unanimous, that court's failure to disclose the comment to the parties before discharging the jury did not amount to a constitu- tional violation. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by conducting a limited inquiry during a posttrial hearing about the juror's comment and denying the defen- dant's request to inquire into why she made that comment, as the court's actions did not deprive the defendant of his right to a fair trial but, rather, satisfied the preliminary inquiry into possible juror misconduct required under State v. Brown (235 Conn. 502), the juror having affirmed her verdict and the court, on the basis of the juror's testimony, having determined that there was no indication that the jury's verdict lacked unanimity or that juror misconduct had occurred, and further questioning of the juror would have constituted improper inquiry into the mental processes by which the verdict was determined. (One judge concurring and one judge dissenting in separate opinions) Argued February