State v. Charles L.

Citations

• 217 Conn. App. 380

Syllabus

Pursuant to statute (§ 53-21 (a) (1)), any person who, inter alia, wilfully or unlawfully does any act likely to impair the health or morals of a child under sixteen years old shall be guilty. Convicted, following a jury trial, of risk of injury to a child pursuant to § 53- 21 (a) (1) in connection with his actions in attempting to entice his three year old daughter, J, to ingest cleaning solution, the defendant appealed to this court. Following an angry discussion at a friend's house, the defendant, J, and his wife and J's stepmother, D, returned to their apartment. While the three were standing in the kitchen, the defendant made a remark that implied that no one loved him or J, and he was just going to ''take'' his life and J's life. He then proceeded to retrieve a cleaning solution from a cabinet and poured it into two cups for himself and J, instructing J to come and drink it. D, who was standing next to J, told her to stay where she was. The defendant then poured the cleaning solution from J's cup into his own and went outside. On appeal to this court, the defendant claimed that the evidence was insufficient for the jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that his actions constituted an act likely to impair the health of a child and that § 53-21 (a) (1) was unconstitutionally vague as applied to the facts of the case. Held: 1. There was sufficient evidence presented at trial to convict the defendant pursuant to the act prong of § 53-21 (a) (1): under our Supreme Court's decision in State v. Ares (345 Conn. 290), a defendant need not touch or have direct physical contact with a child in order to be convicted under the act prong of § 53-21 (a) (1) for engaging in conduct likely to impair the health of a child, and the defendant's attempts to distinguish other cases involving defendants who were convicted for their actions in either directly handing alcohol to a victim or physically pursuing a child with a dangerous weapon were not persuasive, as those cases we