State v. Rosa

Citations

• 196 Conn. App. 490

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of murder, assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a firearm, the defendant appealed, claiming that the state violated his right to due process when it suppressed DNA evidence that was material to his defense, in violation of Brady v. Maryland (373 U.S. 83), and did not disclose it until after the jury returned its verdict. The defendant allegedly shot the victims, J and M, in the automobile in which the three were riding after they had left an after-hours club. M subsequently died from his injuries but J was able to flee after he was shot. After the three men left the after-hours club, the defendant told J to park the automobile on the street so the defendant could exit the automobile to urinate. The defendant testified that, while he was urinating by a nearby fence, an unknown person put a gun to his head and told him not to move, yell or turn around. The defendant further testified that he then heard two loud pop sounds. When he turned around one minute later and saw no one, he went back to the automobile and saw that the driver's side door was open. The defendant testified that he did not see anyone inside the automobile or on the street and then ran away. A discarded sweatshirt that the police found in the vicinity of the shootings was sent to the state's scientific laboratory for DNA testing. At the time of trial, DNA from the sweatshirt had not been matched to anyone, including the defendant. Two weeks after the ver- dict, the prosecutor notified defense counsel that a DNA profile from the sweatshirt had matched a DNA sample that had been collected from a convicted felon, O, whom defense counsel later learned was not incarcerated at the time of the shootings. The defendant claimed that the state had acquired the DNA evidence at least two months before his trial began or while his trial was proceeding, and that it would have discredited the testimony of J, the state's key witness, and bolstered the defense theory that the