State v. ADEYEMI

998 A.2d 211, 122 Conn. App. 1, 2010 Conn. App. LEXIS 239
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJune 22, 2010
DocketAC 30739
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 998 A.2d 211 (State v. ADEYEMI) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. ADEYEMI, 998 A.2d 211, 122 Conn. App. 1, 2010 Conn. App. LEXIS 239 (Colo. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

Opinion

MCDONALD, J.

The defendant, Tyehimba A. Adeyemi, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of accessory to murder in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-54a and 53a-8, felony murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54c, conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-134 (a) (3) and 53a-48, and attempt to commit robbery in the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-49 and 53a-134 (a) (3).1 On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the trial court improperly admitted detailed evidence of his escape [3]*3following his arrest and (2) the state engaged in prose-cutorial impropriety during cross-examinations and closing argument, thereby depriving him of his due process right to a fair trial. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The defendant had been a friend of the victim, Matthew Barrett, for about three months when the victim sold the defendant an automobile in early March, 2005. The victim was a car salesman at Best Buy Auto in New Haven. Sometime before May 5, 2005, the defendant and the victim had a falling out.

On May 5, 2005, the defendant met Craig Davis in a diner near the dealership, and they discussed robbing the victim, who sometimes carried a wallet containing money to buy automobiles at auctions. The defendant and Davis went to Best Buy Auto, where Davis repeatedly stabbed the victim with a box cutter and a knife and struck the victim’s head with a shovel. The defendant also struck the victim’s head with a fire extinguisher because the victim had called the defendant a sex offender.

Shortly thereafter, the victim’s friend, Kraushon Clark, entered Best Buy Auto while simultaneously calling the victim’s cellular telephone. After hearing voices and the victim’s cellular telephone ringing in the garage, Clark knocked on the garage door. Davis opened the door wide enough for Clark to see the victim in a pool of blood on the floor. Davis then swung a shovel at Clark, who ran from the scene. As the defendant and Davis fled, the defendant picked up the victim’s cellular telephone and dropped it while running in the Best Buy Auto parking lot.2 The defendant and Davis ran until [4]*4they reached the defendant’s car. While they were driving, Davis paid the defendant $300 to satisfy a prior debt from the $1500 now in Davis’ possession. When the police arrived at the scene, they did not find the victim’s wallet or money.

When Davis and the defendant reached Davis’ house, both of them changed their bloody clothing. After the crimes took place that morning, the defendant fled from Connecticut and did not return until May 25, 2005, a day before he gave a taped statement to the New Haven police. The defendant subsequently was arrested on June 30, 2005. Other facts will be discussed as they become relevant.

I

The defendant first claims that the court improperly admitted prejudicial evidence concerning the details of his escape from the custody of the department of correction on July 6, 2005. The defendant argues that the admission of the details concerning his theft of clothing, bicycles and a garbage truck was irrelevant, prejudiced the jury and violated his federal constitutional right to a fair trial implicit in the fourteenth amendment to the United States constitution.3 We disagree.

The following additional facts were presented at trial. On July 6, 2005, about two weeks after his arrest, while in the custody of the department of correction, the defendant escaped from Yale-New Haven Hospital where he was undergoing medical treatment. In a written statement to the state police after he was apprehended, the defendant stated that after he fled from the hospital, he ran through backyards, taking a red bicycle and some clothes off a clothes line. He rode [5]*5the bicycle to a Mend’s house looking for help. Once he had showered and changed, his friend gave the defendant some money and drove him to the comer of Mansfield and Tilton Streets in New Haven. There, he tried to contact other friends but was unsuccessful. The defendant then stole another bicycle from Hazel Street in New Haven. When he reached Ella T. Grasso Boulevard in New Haven, he stole a garbage truck parked next to a dumpster. He drove the tmck to Arthur Street and Lamberton Street, where he picked up prostitutes and drove them from New Haven to the Milford rest area on Interstate 95. Because the prostitutes had promised him money after they worked, he then waited for about an hour and drove the prostitutes back to Arthur Street. The prostitutes did not give him the money as promised, so he drove back to where he had stolen the track. He left the truck and walked back toward West Haven, where he stole another bicycle and rode it to the West Haven beach. The next day, he sold the bicycle and walked back to New Haven. Finally, a day later, he turned himself in to the New Haven police department.

At trial, the defendant did not object to the admission of evidence concerning the escape itself, but he did object to the introduction of his written statement given to the state police when he turned himself in, concerning his theft of clothing, bicycles and the garbage truck. According to the defendant, such evidence was irrelevant and particularly prejudicial because it improperly allowed the jury to infer that because the defendant had a propensity to commit theft, he also had a propensity to participate in the brutal killing and robbery of the victim. The state countered that such evidence was relevant to show the defendant’s state of mind, as the conduct was part of the defendant’s escape from custody and showed that he desperately sought funds to flee from Connecticut. The court overruled the defendant’s objection and allowed the state to introduce the [6]*6defendant’s statement in its entirety. The court found that the evidence of this conduct was relevant and material to show the defendant’s state of mind.

Generally, “[e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts of a person is inadmissible to prove the bad character or criminal tendencies of that person. . . . Nevertheless, Connecticut Code of Evidence § 4-5 (b) provides: Evidence of other crimes, wrongs or acts of a person is admissible for purposes other than those specified in subsection (a), such as to prove intent, identity, malice, motive, common plan or scheme, absence of mistake or accident, knowledge, a system of criminal activity, or an element of the crime, or to corroborate crucial prosecution testimony. . . . The list of exceptions provided in the code of evidence is not exclusive but rather is intended to be illustrative.” (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Damato, 105 Conn. App. 335, 353, 937 A.2d 1232, cert. denied, 286 Conn. 920, 949 A.2d 481 (2008). Our Supreme Court has recognized state of mind as such an exception. State v. Meehan, 260 Conn. 372, 395-96, 796 A.2d 1191 (2002).

“To determine whether evidence of prior misconduct falls within an exception to the general rule prohibiting its admission, [the court has] adopted a two-pronged analysis. . . . First, the evidence must be relevant and material to at least one of the circumstances encompassed by the exceptions.

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Related

State v. Bunn
196 Conn. App. 549 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2020)
State v. Artiaco
186 A.3d 789 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Adeyemi
4 A.3d 833 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2010)
State v. ADEYEMI
998 A.2d 211 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
998 A.2d 211, 122 Conn. App. 1, 2010 Conn. App. LEXIS 239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-adeyemi-connappct-2010.