State v. Sayles

Citations

• 348 Conn. 669

Syllabus

Convicted of felony murder and conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, among other crimes, in connection with his role in the robbery of a convenience store and the shooting death of the store clerk, the defendant appealed to the Appellate Court, claiming, inter alia, that the 670 MARCH, 2024 348 Conn. 669 State v. Sayles trial court had improperly denied his motions to suppress evidence of his cell phone and the data contained therein. The defendant and two other men, V and S, had driven to the convenience store in V's car. While V waited in the car, the defendant and S entered the store, robbed it of cash and cigars, and fatally shot the store clerk. V then drove S and the defendant to the defendant's apartment. V later contacted the police and identified the defendant and S in photographs taken from the store's surveillance footage, which showed that they were wearing masks and gloves. Subsequently, the police obtained and executed a search warrant for the defendant's residence, where they found a ski mask and a pair of gloves. The defendant was not present during the search but thereafter met with the police for an interview. Before the interview, the defendant gave his cell phone to his mother, who was sitting outside of the interview room. After the defendant invoked his right to counsel, a detective approached the defendant's mother and asked her for the defendant's cell phone, which she gave to the detective. The police subsequently obtained a warrant to search the contents of the cell phone. The evidence retrieved from the cell phone included a draft, unsent text message to an unknown recipient, in which the defen- dant stated, ''[i]f I get locked up tell sheema put them shits in the river some where . . . .'' At trial, there was testimony that ''sheema'' referred to the defendant's girlfriend, and the prosecutor argued during closing argument that ''shits'' referred to the gun used during the robbery. The state also elicited testimony from H, who