State v. Roberts

Citations

• 227 Conn. App. 159

Syllabus

Convicted, on a plea of guilty, of the crimes of reckless endangerment in the second degree, threatening in the second degree, and intimidation based on bigotry or bias in the third degree, the defendant appealed to this court. His conviction arose out of an incident in which he aimed a shotgun at individuals renting his neighbor's property, called them racial slurs and told them to get out. The defendant was charged in a second docket with, inter alia, intimidation based on bigotry or bias in the third degree for his actions in calling his neighbor and leaving a voicemail message that intimated future violence if the neighbor again rented the residence to people of color. He elected to enter a plea of guilty to reckless endangerment and threatening in the first docket and intimida- tion based on bigotry or bias in the second docket. At his plea hearing, the trial court expressed doubt as to the sufficiency of the factual basis for applying the charge of intimidation based on bigotry or bias in the second docket. The state, with the agreement of defense counsel, added the intimidation charge to the first docket, and the defendant was put to plea only in the first docket. The court canvassed the defendant and accepted his guilty plea. The court thereafter denied the defendant's motion to withdraw his plea and rendered a judgment of guilty. Held: 1. The trial court correctly concluded that the plea canvass was sufficient; although the court did not restate each of the three constitutional rights delineated in Boykin v. Alabama (395 U.S. 238), namely, the privilege against self-incrimination, the right to a jury trial, and the right to con- front one's accusers, the defendant was cognizant of those rights prior to entering his guilty plea because he affirmed during the plea canvass that his attorney had fully explained the constitutional rights he was waiving and, thus, his plea was knowingly, voluntarily, and intelli- gently made. 2. The defendant could not prevail on