State v. Qayyum

Citations

• 201 Conn. App. 864

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crimes of conspiracy to sell narcotics and possession of narcotics with intent to sell, the defendant appealed to this court. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court violated his due process rights by shifting the burdens of proof and persuasion to him to prove that he had a legitimate source of income, which was based on his claim that the court erred in permitting a state Department of Labor representative, R, to testify that the defendant had no reportable wages, thereby suggesting that he earned a living selling drugs: the defendant's claim challenging R's testimony was evidentiary rather than constitutional in nature; moreover, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting R's testimony and determining that the probative value of the evidence of the defendant's lack of reportable wages out- weighed its prejudicial effect, as that evidence was probative of whether the defendant was engaged in trafficking drugs and was not unduly prejudicial because R's testimony was not presented in a manner that would have improperly aroused the emotions of the jurors; furthermore, even if this court assumed that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting R's testimony, any error was harmless, as the defendant failed to satisfy his burden of proving that it was more probable than not that the admission of the testimony substantially affected the verdict. 2. The defendant's claim that the trial court erred in admitting impermissible expert opinion testimony from F, a police detective, on the ultimate issue of whether the defendant intended to sell narcotics was unavailing; that court did not abuse its discretion in admitting F's testimony, as his testimony concerned only general factors that he would consider when deciding to charge a person with possession of narcotics with intent to sell, including the general behavior of drug users and drug traffickers, and the prosecutor did not ask