State v. Francis

Citations

• 195 Conn. App. 113

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crime of murder in connection with the death of the victim, the defendant appealed. The defendant's conviction stemmed from an incident in which he caused the victim's death, dragged her body out of their shared apartment, drove to a used car shop where the body was left in the defendant's vehicle all day until the defendant drove back to the apartment and put the body in a bathtub, after which he made a 911 phone call claiming that he found the victim in the bathtub. At trial, the court denied the defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal, which was made at the close of the state's case-in-chief, the defendant rested without putting on evidence, and the jury found the defendant guilty of murder. Held: 1. The trial court properly denied the defendant's motion for a judgment of acquittal, as there was sufficient evidence for the jury to have found the defendant guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt: even though the defendant claimed that there was insufficient evidence to establish that he caused the victim's death or that he had the specific intent to cause her death, the defendant conceded that there was sufficient evidence to support an inference that he dragged the victim's body out of their apartment, down the stairs and across the grass, that he put the body into his vehicle and drove, in broad daylight, to a used car shop, where he left the body in his vehicle all day, and that he subsequently transferred the body to another vehicle and drove the body back to the apartment, where he remained for several hours before calling 911, and, therefore, the evidence was more than sufficient for the jury to have concluded that the defendant intended to kill the victim and did succeed in killing the victim; moreover, there was substantial evidence of con- sciousness of guilt, including that the defendant declined to provide emergency assistance to the victim and repeatedly lied to the police and emergency personnel, and the