State v. Jackson

Citations

• 198 Conn. App. 489

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been found to be in violation of probation, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court revoking his probation and sentencing him to six years of incarceration. While the defendant had been serving his probationary term, he was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell. The defendant was thereafter charged with violation of probation on the basis of this arrest, as well as two incidents in which he failed to report to the Office of Adult Probation. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding that he violated his probation because there was insufficient evidence to prove that he had constructive possession of the narcotics that formed the basis for his arrest, and the two instances in which he failed to report to the Office of Adult Probation were de minimis: the state presented sufficient evidence to buttress an inference that the defendant constructively possessed narcotics, specifically, evi- dence was presented that the police, while conducting surveillance of an apartment building on the basis of a confidential informant's tip that an individual named J was selling narcotics there, observed S, who had a history of drug related offenses, drive up to the building, and the defendant, the passenger in S's vehicle, went into the building and returned within five minutes, and the police, after conducting a motor vehicle stop, subsequently found a razor blade and narcotics in the front seat of S's vehicle, leading the court reasonably to have inferred that the defendant returned to the vehicle and placed the narcotics on the front seat with the intention that he and S would use or distribute them and, furthermore, sufficient evidence supported the finding of a violation of probation on the basis of two instances in which the defendant failed to report to the Office of Adult Probation