State v. Belcher

Citations

• 342 Conn. 1

Syllabus

The defendant appealed from the trial court's denial of his motion to correct an illegal sentence. The defendant's lengthy prison sentence had been imposed in connection with his conviction of kidnapping in the first degree, sexual assault in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, and attempt to commit sexual assault in the first degree. In his motion to correct, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that his sentence was imposed in an illegal manner insofar as the sentencing court relied on materially false information, namely, a baseless and subsequently discredited theory alleging the rise of teenage superpredators who would terrorize society. The defendant specifically claimed that the sentencing court improperly imposed his sentence on the basis of its characterization of the defendant as a ''charter member'' of that group of superpredators. The trial court rejected the defendant's claim, concluding, inter alia, that the evidence supported the determina- tion that the defendant fit the definition of a ''superpredator,'' regardless of the validity of that theory, and that the sentencing court's remarks about the superpredator theory were not central to its sentencing deci- sion. On appeal from the trial court's denial of the defendant's motion, This case originally was scheduled to be argued before a panel of this court consisting of Chief Justice Robinson and Justices D'Auria, Mullins, Kahn, Ecker and Keller. Thereafter, Justice McDonald was added to the panel and has read the briefs and appendices, and listened to a recording of the oral argument prior to participating in this decision. 1 2 FEBRUARY, 2022 342 Conn. 1 State v. Belcher the defendant claimed that the trial court had abused its discretion in concluding that the sentencing court did not substantially rely on materially false information in sentencing him. Held that the trial court abused its discretion in denying the defendant's motion to correct an illegal senten