State v. Gibson

Citations

• 340 Conn. 407

Syllabus

Convicted of felony murder, robbery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, and criminal possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting death of the victim, the defendant appealed. At the defendant's trial, one of the state's witnesses, S, testified that the defendant knew that the victim had a significant amount of cash on him and that the defendant planned to steal it. S testified that, at the defendant's request, he drove the victim to the home of the 408 DECEMBER, 2021 340 Conn. 407 State v. Gibson defendant's mother, where the defendant, in S's presence, robbed and then shot the victim. The state presented additional evidence that was consistent with S's account of the events. Another witness, A, testified that she lived across the street from where the victim's body was found and that she saw the defendant push a person matching the victim's description against a wall and drag him toward the lawn of an abandoned house, and then A heard gunshots. The trial court also admitted into evidence, over defense counsel's objection, portions of A's written state- ment to the police. In addition, before calling the defendant's nephew, R, to testify, the prosecutor represented to the court that R had pending criminal charges against him. The court initially indicated that it would prohibit an inquiry by defense counsel into those charges, but, after hearing additional argument, the court revised its ruling by stating that defense counsel could question R about the existence of pending charges and the maximum penalty that could be imposed for those charges, so long as the questions were directed toward the issue of bias. Ultimately, the prosecutor presented R's testimony, which corroborated S's testi- mony, but the prosecutor did not mention the charges against R during direct examination, and defense counsel declined to cross-examine R. Held: 1. The trial court properly admitted the portions of A's written statement to the police be