State v. Stephenson

Citations

• 207 Conn. App. 154

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of burglary in the third degree, attempt to commit tampering with physical evidence and attempt to commit arson in the second degree in connection with a break-in at a courthouse, the defen- dant appealed to this court, claiming, inter alia, that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction of all three offenses. At the time of the events at issue, the defendant had two felony charges pending against him and was scheduled to commence jury selection in a trial of those charges. Two days before the start of jury selection, a silent alarm was triggered at the courthouse at about 11 p.m. The police discovered, inter alia, a broken window that provided ingress to an office shared by assistant state's attorneys, a duffel bag containing six canisters of industrial strength kerosene on the floor of the hallway outside the office, and case files atop a desk that had two of its drawers open and other files scattered on the floor. Surveillance video also depicted a vehicle, similar to one the defendant drove, driving by the courthouse repeatedly in the hours before the break-in, and, while the defendant was in custody after having been convicted of other charges that had been pending against him, he asked his brother, in a recorded telephone call, to get rid of ''bottles of things'' for a heater, speculated about how the police located the vehicle and attempted to arrange an alibi. On the defendant's appeal to this court, this court concluded that the state had failed to produce sufficient evidence regarding the defendant's intent to commit tampering, which was a requirement com- mon to all of the charged offenses, reversed the defendant's conviction and remanded the case to the trial court with direction to render judg- ment of acquittal as to all three charges. Our Supreme Court thereafter granted the state's petition for certification to appeal, reversed this court's judgment and remanded the case to this court for further proceed- ings. O