State v. Harris

Citations

• 198 Conn. App. 530

Syllabus

Convicted, following a jury trial, of the crimes of murder, robbery in the first degree, and carrying a pistol without a permit, the defendant appealed. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court improperly admitted uncharged misconduct evidence regarding two robberies and three shootings: the defendant failed to preserve his claim that the trial court improperly admitted evidence of uncharged misconduct, the defendant's objections lacked specificity with regard to the two robber- ies and the record did not reveal any objections to the admission of evidence regarding the shootings; moreover, the defendant was not entitled to reversal of his conviction under the plain error doctrine on his unpreserved claim that the trial court improperly admitted evidence of three uncharged shootings as it was clear from the record that the court balanced the probative value of the evidence against its prejudicial effect, and its determination that the evidence was more probative than prejudicial was legally correct; furthermore, even assuming, arguendo, that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the evidence of the uncharged shootings, the defendant could not prove that the abuse of discretion was harmful in light of the trial court's ameliorative steps, which included limiting instructions to the jury regarding its use of uncharged misconduct evidence. 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that prosecutorial impropriety deprived him of his due process right to a fair trial; the prosecutor's comments about the defendant's gang affiliation and her misstatement about the location where the defendant confessed to an individual about the murder did not constitute prosecutorial impropriety and, although, the prosecutor's use of the defendant's nickname beyond the purpose of clarifying the responses of the witnesses was arguably improper, the defendant was not deprived of a fair trial by the prosecutor's use of his nickname, given th