State v. Parker

Citations

• 201 Conn. App. 435

Syllabus

The defendant appealed from the judgment of the trial court revoking his probation for his failure to pay restitution. The defendant had previously pleaded guilty to various offenses, including burglary and larceny, and was sentenced to probation. As a condition of his probation, the court ordered the defendant to make restitution in the amount of more than $18,000. Thereafter, he was charged with additional offenses and for violating certain terms of his probation, not involving the payment of restitution, to which he pleaded guilty. The trial court continued the defendant's probation. In the months that followed, the defendant paid a total of $850 in restitution. The state thereafter charged the defendant with violation of probation for failure to pay restitution. The trial court revoked the defendant's probation, having determined, on the basis of the defendant's prior statements made to the court at his first probation revocation hearing, that the defendant had the ability and the willingness to pay, and would make sufficient efforts to pay, but had failed to do so. On appeal, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that the trial court erred in revoking his probation without first finding that his failure to pay the restitution was wilful. Held that the trial court erred in revoking the defendant's probation for failure to make restitution payments, as that court did not apply the correct legal standard and erred in making an implicit finding of wilfulness: as a prerequisite to incarceration for the failure to pay restitution, the trial court was required to make explicit findings on the record that a defendant had the ability to pay and, if so, whether the failure to pay was wilful, and, if not, whether the defen- dant made sufficient bona fide efforts legally to acquire the resources to pay; even if the trial court interpreted the defendant's statements made one and one-half years earlier at the first probation revocation hearing as an admission that he had the ab