State v. Gray

Citations

• 342 Conn. 657

Syllabus

Convicted of numerous crimes, including felony murder, in connection with the shooting death of the victim, the defendant appealed to this court. During the course of the defendant's trial, the trial court detained three eyewitnesses to the shooting, W, G, and H, who were reluctant to testify. Due to the state's difficulty in locating and serving subpoenas on W and H, the trial court issued material witness warrants pursuant to statute (§ 54-82j) to secure their appearance at trial. After completing his direct examination of W, the prosecutor requested that W be detained overnight to ensure that she return the next day for cross-examination. When W's assigned counsel indicated that W did not have overnight childcare for her daughter, the court first suggested that the state contact the Department of Children and Families but then gave W time to make childcare arrangements, which she ultimately was successful in doing. The trial court also granted the prosecutor's request to detain H for an additional night in light of H's demeanor at trial and his prior efforts to avoid the state's subpoenas. H's testimony was then delayed for another day because the testimony of certain other witnesses was prioritized, This case was originally argued before a panel of this court consisting of Chief Justice Robinson, and Justices McDonald, D'Auria, Kahn, Ecker and Keller. Thereafter, Justice Mullins was added to the panel and has read the briefs and appendices, and listened to a recording of the oral argument prior to participating in this decision. 658 MARCH, 2022 342 Conn. 657 State v. Gray but the court released H with electronic monitoring at the request of H's assigned counsel. In addition, although G initially appeared at trial pursuant to a subpoena, she failed to appear the next day because her mother was unavailable to drive her to the courthouse. The court confirmed that G was twenty-one years old and ordered that she be taken into custody pursuant to the capias statute (§