State v. Ingala

Citations

• 199 Conn. App. 240

Syllabus

Convicted, on a conditional plea of nolo contendere, of possession of a sawed-off shotgun and criminal possession of a firearm, the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant allegedly fled the scene of a motor vehicle accident and thereafter assaulted a witness to the accident with a sawed-off shotgun. The police met the defendant at his home in an attempt to locate the shotgun. The defendant gave the police permission to search his apartment and the backyard of the property but the search was unsuccessful. The police thereafter conducted a ruse; they stated that they were leaving the property but, instead, continued their surveil- lance of the defendant to see if he would recover the weapon after the police left. The defendant then walked outside to an area of the property, where he was stopped by the police. The police then resumed their search of that area and seized the shotgun. On appeal to this court, the defendant claimed that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress the shotgun because there were no exigent circumstances that permitted the officers to conduct a warrantless search and seizure of the shotgun under the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution. Held that the trial court properly concluded that the search was lawful under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement and properly denied the defendant's motion to suppress, as the police had strong reason to believe that the defendant had used the sawed- off shotgun to assault the witness earlier that evening and it was likely that the shotgun was on the property despite the defendant's assertions to the contrary; the record indicated that the defendant was visibly intoxicated and had stated in the presence of the officers that he was willing to resort to violence in response to someone who bullied him, it was reasonable and prudent for the police to believe that the shotgun could have been loaded, and, under the circumstances, it was reasonable for th