State v. Hall-George

Citations

• 203 Conn. App. 219

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crime of robbery in the second degree, the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant, wearing baggy clothing, including a sweatshirt, entered a bank and approached a teller station. He passed a withdrawal ticket to the teller, and told the teller to give him all the money and no one would get hurt. On the back of the withdrawal ticket was a handwritten note, which stated: ''Give me . . . all the money and no one gets hurt.'' It also stated: ''It's in my sweatshirt.'' The teller complied and gave the defendant the money. The defendant then left the bank. On appeal, the defendant claimed that the evidence was insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he threatened the use of what he represented by his words or conduct to be a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument as required by statute (§ 53a-135 (a) (1) (B)). Held that the evidence was sufficient for the jury reasonably to have found that the defendant represented that he had a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument in his sweatshirt and that he threatened to use it if the teller did not give him money; the defendant orally and in writing threatened to harm the bank staff if his demand for money was not met, and, immediately following the written threat of harm on the note, was the statement that ''it'' was in his sweatshirt, a statement that the jury reasonably could have inferred made reference to what the defendant would use to carry out the harm he threatened, namely, an object that he had concealed under his sweatshirt, it was reasonable for the jury to infer that his sweatshirt, which surveillance video and photographs showed was baggy, was capa- ble of concealing a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, and, given the fact that his threat was made during a bank robbery, it was reasonable for the jury to infer that he had threatened to inflict serious physical injury or death if his demands were not met. Argued December 8, 2020—officially released March 9, 2