State v. Carter

Citations

• 350 Conn. 43

Syllabus

The defendant appealed from the judgment of conviction of home invasion and burglary in the first degree. The defendant claimed, inter alia, that the 44 OCTOBER, 2024 350 Conn. 43 State v. Carter trial court improperly allowed the jury to determine that the air gun he had been carrying during the home invasion constituted a deadly weapon for purposes of the offenses of which he was convicted. Held: The question of whether the air gun at issue was a deadly weapon at the time of the offenses was subject to plenary review because the disputed issues in this case were not about the factual aspects of how the gun operated but, rather, concerned the meaning of the language in the statute (§ 53a-3 (6)) defining ''deadly weapon,'' as applied to the undisputed facts. The defendant's conviction of home invasion and first degree burglary could not stand because the air gun at issue was not one from which a shot could be readily discharged, as the gun, at the time of the home invasion, was modified such that significant effort would have been needed before it could be loaded and/or discharged. The trial court's legal error in instructing the jury with respect to the deadly weapon element of the home invasion and first degree burglary charges precluded application of the general verdict rule as an alternative ground for affirming the judgment of conviction. Argued March 20—officially released July 25, 2024