State v. Wade

Citations

• 221 Conn. App. 690

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court revoking his probation and sentencing him to thirteen years of imprisonment. The defendant had signed a form that contained conditions of probation that required, inter alia, that he not violate any criminal laws of this state. Thereafter, the defendant's probation officer received information that the defendant was a suspect in a home invasion. In the warrant application for the defendant's arrest, a police officer indicated that the defendant had been positively identified in a photographic array by R, a complaining witness to the home invasion. Prior to the probation revocation hearing, the defendant filed three motions with the court, seeking to suppress evidence of the photographic array identification as well as any testimony related to R's statements surrounding his identification of the defendant throughout the course of the investigation into the home invasion. The defendant specifically asked the court to engage in the balancing test referenced in State v. Crespo (190 Conn. App. 639), weighing the defendant's interest in confronting R against the state's reasons for not producing R and the reliability of the proffered hearsay, and to preclude testimony from any witness regarding R's identification of the defendant if the state did not present R as a witness. The state later located and offered to produce R, but he indicated that, if he were called to testify, he would invoke his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination and, thus, the court found that he was unavail- able to testify. After the court's determination that R was unavailable, defense counsel argued that Crespo no longer applied and that the defendant's right to due process would be violated by the court's consid- eration of unreliable hearsay and a total inability to confront R. The court denied the defendant's motions and engaged in an evaluation of the reli