State v. Anthony V.

Citations

• 227 Conn. App. 281

Syllabus

Convicted, following a jury trial, of the crime of manslaughter in the first degree with a firearm, the defendant appealed to this court. It was undisputed that the victim was killed by a gunshot wound to the head from the defendant's replica Civil War era revolver. When he was inter- viewed by the police, the defendant contended that the victim had been in the bathroom, using the toilet, while he was cleaning the revolver in the bedroom. He further contended that, when he was holding the revolver and walking into the bathroom for a napkin, he had tripped and fallen toward the victim. In falling, he lost control of the revolver, the barrel of which struck the victim's head, and it accidentally dis- charged. At trial, the state produced uncontested evidence that the fatal wound was inflicted by a single shot from the defendant's revolver, the revolver had an extremely light trigger pull, and the revolver had been pressed against the victim's head and behind her left ear when the gun discharged. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that there was insufficient evidence to support the judgment of conviction: the evidence and the inferences that the jury reasonably could have drawn therefrom were sufficient to support the state's theory that the defendant intentionally placed the loaded revolver against the victim's head, including testimony by the state medical examiner that the gunshot that killed the victim was discharged while the muzzle of the revolver was flush against the victim's head, and the jury reasonably could have found that the likeli- hood of that occurring randomly or haphazardly, as the defendant claimed, was slight; moreover, there was evidence that the defendant and the victim had a volatile relationship, which was fueled by drug and alcohol use, and the defendant's actions with the revolver did not display sound judgment; furthermore, the jury could have doubted the veracity of the defendant's statements concerning his handling of th