State v. Colon

Citations

• 232 Conn. App. 122

Syllabus

Convicted, following a jury trial, of possession of a controlled substance and operation of a motor vehicle while having an elevated blood alcohol content, the defendant appealed. The defendant claimed, inter alia, for the first time on appeal, that the state improperly joined the two offenses into a single information because they were not offenses of the same character and that the trial court's failure to sever them, sua sponte, constituted plain error. Held: The trial court's failure to sever the offenses, sua sponte, did not constitute plain error, as the remedy to the purportedly improper joinder was available to the defendant via a motion to sever pursuant to the rule of practice (§ 41- 18), and there was no obligation on the court to consider what might have been a tactical choice by the defendant or his counsel not to pursue a motion to sever. The jury had ample evidence to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant operated his motor vehicle with an elevated blood alcohol content in violation of statute (§ 14-227a (a) (2)), including the testimony of the arresting officer, body camera footage of the defendant's failed field sobriety tests, the results of the defendant's two breath tests, and expert testimony thereon. Argued October 21, 2024—officially released April 22, 2025