State v. Gore

Citations

• 342 Conn. 129

Syllabus

Pursuant to the applicable provision (§ 7-3 (a)) of the Connecticut Code of Evidence, testimony in the form of an opinion is generally inadmissible if it embraces an ultimate issue to be decided by the trier of fact. Pursuant further to this court's decision in State v. Finan (275 Conn. 60), lay opinion testimony identifying a defendant in video surveillance foot- age had been deemed inadmissible when the identification embraced an ultimate issue. Convicted of the crimes of murder and criminal possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting death of the victim, the defendant appealed to this court, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court improperly had admitted the testimony of P, a police officer, that C, a close friend of the defendant, made a statement identifying the defendant in a still photograph taken from a surveillance video of the shooting. At the start of the defendant's trial, the defendant filed a motion in limine, seeking to preclude the state from introducing C's statement to the police identi- fying the defendant in the surveillance video and still photograph. The trial court ruled that C's identification of the defendant in the surveillance video would constitute lay opinion testimony concerning an ultimate issue and thus was inadmissible under § 7-3 (a) of the Code of Evidence. The court, however, left open the possibility that the state could intro- duce C's identification of the defendant in the still photograph if the state were able to demonstrate that C had, independently of the video, identified the subject depicted in the still photograph as the defendant. During C's testimony at trial, C denied that he ever had identified the defendant in the still photograph, and P testified, in accordance with the court's ruling, that C had told him that the subject in the still photo- graph was the defendant. During deliberations, the jury asked the court if it could provide the jury with a magnifying glass. Over defense counsel's objection, t