State v. Wilson

Citations

• 209 Conn. App. 779

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of murder and carrying a pistol without a permit as a result of the shooting death of the victim, the defendant appealed, claiming, inter alia, that he was deprived of his right to present a defense when the trial court improperly instructed the jury about the adequacy of the police investigation. The defendant's theory of defense was that the police conducted an inadequate investigation during which, among other things, they failed to investigate leads, did not attempt to obtain DNA profiles or request DNA testing of certain evidence, and failed to treat four individuals as suspects and take DNA samples from them, even though they were in the vicinity of the shooting at about the time it occurred. The defendant filed a request to charge as to the inadequacy of the police investigation that differed from the model jury instruction on the Judicial Branch website at that time. After conducting a charging conference with counsel, the trial court used the model instruction rather than the defendant's requested charge. The defendant claimed that the court's instructions effectively told the jurors to disregard the adequacy of the police investigation as it related to the strength of the state's case and to disregard his theory of the case. During the pendency of the defendant's appeal, our Supreme Court issued its decision in State v. Gomes (337 Conn. 826), in which it held that the model jury instruction improperly failed to inform the jury of a defendant's right to present evidence of investigative inadequacy and the jury's right to consider such deficiencies in evaluating whether the state proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Held: 1. The trial court erred when it instructed the jury regarding the adequacy of the police investigation, as it was reasonably possible that the instruc- tions misled the jury to believe it could not consider the defendant's arguments as to that issue: a. Contrary to the state's assertion that the defendant's cl