State v. Hargett

Citations

• 196 Conn. App. 228

Syllabus

Convicted of the crime of murder in connection with the shooting death of the victim, the defendant appealed. He claimed that the trial court vio- lated his right to present a defense when it excluded certain evidence of an alleged statement made by a bystander and an autopsy toxicology report, violated his right to due process when it declined to give a jury instruction on self-defense, improperly admitted firearm related evidence including, inter alia, reports by a state firearms expert, R, and violated his right to a fair trial when it failed to grant his motions for sanctions, for a new trial or to dismiss the charges after the state's late disclosure of the firearms related evidence. He further claimed that he was denied the right to a fair trial due to prosecutorial impropriety. Held: 1. The trial court did not abuse its discretion or violate the defendant's right to present a defense by excluding evidence of a statement allegedly made by an unidentified bystander and the toxicology portion of the victim's autopsy report. a. The defendant failed to demonstrate the relevancy to his claim of self-defense or to lay an evidentiary foundation for the unidentified bystander's alleged statement; the defendant failed to lay the foundation necessary to admit the alleged statement as relevant to his state of mind, in that he failed to offer any testimony that the alleged statement influenced his assessment of the need to use deadly physical force against the victim and, as there was no evidence that the defendant heard the alleged statement, it was irrelevant to his motive. b. The trial court properly excluded the toxicology report from evidence: there was no causal relationship between the victim having PCP in his body and the defendant having shot him; moreover, at trial, the defendant failed to explain why the presence of PCP in the victim was relevant to his claim of self-defense or his intent and there was no evidence that the defendant feared the victim or that th