State v. Marcello E.

Syllabus

Convicted of the crime of assault in the first degree in connection with the stabbing of the victim, his former partner and the mother of their two children, the defendant appealed to this court. He claimed that the trial court improperly admitted certain evidence of his alleged uncharged misconduct that pertained to two altercations he had with the victim prior to the date of the charged crime. Prior to trial, the state, pursuant to the applicable provision (§ 4-5 (c)) of the Connecticut Code of Evidence, sought to admit evidence of four prior altercations between the defen- dant and the victim for the purpose of establishing the defendant's intent to commit the charged crime. The trial court admitted evidence of two of the altercations, which occurred two and three years before the stabbing. In one incident, the victim sustained a concussion after the defendant punched her in the face; in another incident, he punched her in the mouth in the presence of their minor daughter. On appeal, the defendant claimed that the uncharged misconduct was not relevant to intent or similar in nature to the charged crime, and that the uncharged misconduct was more prejudicial than probative and, thus, harmful. Held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting uncharged misconduct evidence involving two prior altercations between the defen- dant and the victim, as that evidence was relevant and probative and, thus, admissible to prove his intent to assault the victim by stabbing her: the court reasonably could have found that the prior misconduct was sufficiently probative of intent because it involved the same victim and was of a similar nature as the charged conduct, which involved repeated stabs to the victim's head and body, evidence that the defendant previously struck the victim made it more likely that he intended to cause her serious physical injury by stabbing her, as the prior miscon- duct, which was not too remote, was probative of his attitude toward he