State v. Dawson

Citations

• 340 Conn. 136

Syllabus

Convicted of criminal possession of a pistol or revolver and criminal trespass in the third degree, the defendant appealed to the Appellate Court, claiming, inter alia, that there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction of criminal possession of a pistol or revolver. Police officers had been patrolling a housing complex when they entered a courtyard and saw six individuals, including the defendant. While two officers spoke with the defendant and three others, S, J and E, who were seated at a picnic table near a corner formed by cement walls, a third officer, L, stepped onto the wall behind the defendant and immediately saw in plain view a gun lying in the corner by some bushes. S and J were closest to the gun, and the defendant was approximately four to five feet away from it. A few days later, the defendant, S, J and E each voluntarily provided the police with a DNA sample, and, thereafter, the police used swabs to collect DNA from the gun and ammunition that was removed from the gun. The swabs and the DNA samples were delivered to the state forensics laboratory, where R, a forensic science examiner, generated a partial DNA profile from a small, partially degraded touch DNA sample extracted from the swabs and compared it with the DNA samples provided by the defendant, S, J and E. R's analysis produced scientifically viable and accurate results that elimi- nated S, J and E as possible contributors to the DNA profile but could not eliminate the defendant as a contributor. On appeal to the Appellate Court, the defendant specifically contended that there was insufficient evidence of his knowledge of the gun and no evidence to prove his dominion or control over it. The Appellate Court affirmed the judgment of conviction, concluding, inter alia, that there was sufficient circumstan- tial evidence from which the jury reasonably could have inferred that the defendant was in possession of the gun when he entered the court- yard, that he put it near the bushes wh