State v. Velazquez

Citations

• 197 Conn. App. 754

Syllabus

Convicted, following a bench trial, of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs, the defendant appealed to this court, claiming that there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction and that the trial court improperly admitted certain testimony of a police officer. The defendant had been involved in an accident in which the investigating police officers determined that he had been the operator of the motor vehicle that collided with two other vehicles. At trial, during the state's direct examination of D, a police officer who responded to the scene of the accident, D testified that he smelled the odor of marijuana in the defendant's car but he did not smell the odor of marijuana on the defendant's person. Following D's testimony, defense counsel, claiming that the state committed a discovery violation because it had not disclosed that D would testify about the odor of marijuana, moved for a mistrial and a dismissal of the charge. The trial court denied defense counsel's motions and found the defendant guilty. Held: 1. This court concluded, on the basis of the evidence presented at trial and the reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, that there was sufficient evidence for the trial court to have found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of operating a motor vehicle while under the influ- ence of intoxicating liquor or drugs, specifically, marijuana or Gabapen- tin, or both: the defendant did not dispute that he was operating a motor vehicle on a public road at the time of the accident, and the state elicited testimony from the investigating police officers that the defendant failed three field sobriety tests, that he was stumbling around and slow to respond to questions and directions, appeared dazed and confused, appeared unaware that he had been in a car accident, refused to provide a urine sample following his arrest, and admitted to the officers that he had smoked marijuana approximately one hour befo