State v. Ampero

72 A.3d 435, 144 Conn. App. 706, 2013 WL 3889771, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 399
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedAugust 6, 2013
DocketAC 33545
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 72 A.3d 435 (State v. Ampero) 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. Ampero, 72 A.3d 435, 144 Conn. App. 706, 2013 WL 3889771, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 399 (Colo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion

SHELDON, J.

The defendant, Alberto Ampero, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of kidnapping in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-94 (a) and interfering with an officer in violation of General Statutes § 53a-167a.1 On appeal, the defendant makes three claims: [708]*708(1) that the admission of testimony regarding his prior bad acts constituted reversible error; (2) that the admission of testimony regarding his prior incarceration constituted reversible error; and (3) that prosecutorial impropriety in offering the foregoing evidence and arguing its significance to the jury deprived him of a fair trial. We disagree, and thus affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On August 27, 2009, around 7 p.m., the victim, Jasmin Vazquez, was driving her three children, a six year old, a four year old, and a six month old, to her mother’s house on Natick Street in Hartford, when she stopped at the store on the comer of Broad and Ward Streets in Hartford to buy them chips and juice. She had parked her car on Broad Street and was walking around the car to remove her children from it when she saw the defendant. The victim and the defendant previously had been in a relationship together that ended in April, 2009, following an incident in which the defendant slapped the victim in the face and broke both of her cell phones in half.

The defendant initiated a conversation with the victim by saying that they needed to talk, to which the victim replied that they did not have to talk about anything. After the defendant repeated that they needed to talk, he showed the victim a kitchen knife in his back pocket and told her to get into her car. After the victim complied, the defendant also got into the car and told the victim to drive around the comer and park in front of an apartment building on Ward Street. Once she had parked her car around the comer, the defendant turned off the car’s motor and told the victim and the two older children to get out of the car. The defendant also got out of the car and carried with him the victim’s six month old son in his car seat. The defendant then directed the victim and the children into his apartment. [709]*709The defendant led the victim and her children upstairs to a room inside of the apartment that contained only a bed, told the two older children to go to sleep, and put the baby, who was still in his car seat, on the floor.

The defendant, who was then “real mad,” again told the victim that they had to talk. The victim repeatedly told the defendant that she wanted to go home, but the defendant told her she was not going anywhere. The defendant argued with the victim and would not let her leave the apartment or make any phone calls. At some point during the argument, the defendant pressed the same knife that he previously had displayed to the victim against her stomach and told her that he loved her and that if she was not going to be with him, she would not be with any man. The defendant also threatened that if the victim was not going to be with him, he would either kill her or kill himself and that she would have to Uve with the fact that he had killed himself for her love.

The defendant argued with the victim for the next several hours and at one point bit her neck, leaving hickeys to show that she belonged to him. The defendant held the victim overnight. The next day, the victim tried to escape by bringing her children downstairs, but the defendant would not let her leave. The defendant grabbed the victim by her right wrist, told her she was not going anywhere, took her phone, and ordered her to call her mother. The defendant instructed the victim to teU her mother that she was happy with the defendant, that she loved him and that they were going to be together. The victim complied, but the victim’s mother did not beheve her daughter because she was crying and she knew her daughter was afraid of the defendant. The victim’s mother repeatedly asked her about her location, what the defendant was doing to her, and if the children were okay. The victim was able to respond only that the children were okay. The defendant then took the phone and spoke with the [710]*710victim’s mother directly, telling her that he knew she had called the police in April when he was arrested and that she had better not call the police this time.2 The victim’s mother then handed the phone to her husband so that she could call the police. Fearing that the defendant would hear her calling the police, the victim’s mother told the 911 operator that she had had a fight with her daughter that had caused her daughter to leave the house and that she was requesting a well-being check. The defendant then hung up the phone.

After the phone conversation with her mother, the victim repeatedly told the defendant that she wanted to go home, to which he replied that she was not going anywhere. The defendant then grabbed the victim by her neck, choking her and leaving scratch marks on her neck. The victim attempted to go downstairs with her children, but the defendant grabbed her by the neck again. The defendant then let the victim go downstairs with her two older children, but he brought the baby back upstairs, and the victim yelled at the defendant to give her back her baby. At this point, an unidentified older man who lived downstairs told the defendant to give the victim back her baby and to let her go because he did not want any trouble with the police. The defendant obliged and let the victim and her children leave the apartment. He made the victim promise to come back, however, and threatened that if she did not return, he would look for her and kill her. The victim then drove to her mother’s house, where she was met by Officers Robert Quaglini and Robert Iovanna of the Hartford Police Department, who had responded to her mother’s 911 call. The victim informed the officers of [711]*711what had happened and provided a description of the defendant and the location where the incident had occurred.

Quaglini and Iovanna then left the mother’s home in pursuit of the defendant. After obtaining the defendant’s name, date of birth, and “DOC picture”3 from their cruiser computer, they began walking on Ward Street and saw the defendant standing on the front steps of an apartment building. When Quaglini made eye contact with him, the defendant immediately turned around and ran inside the apartment. Quaglini ordered the defendant to stop, but he did not comply. Quaglini then chased him into the apartment, where he ran down the back stairs and out the back door of the apartment. The defendant ran west on Ward Street, turned north on Lawrence Street, passed a couple of houses, ran east, and started hopping fences in the backyards while running northbound on Lawrence Street.

Quaglini saw the defendant hop a fence at 913 Broad Street and later located him hiding under a minivan parked near that address. Quaglini first ordered the defendant to come out from under the minivan, but he refused. When Quaglini attempted to grab the defendant’s feet to pull him out, the defendant began kicking at Quaglini’s hands. Quaglini then struck the defendant’s ankle with his baton, but the defendant still would not come out. Quaglini struck the defendant’s ankle three more times before he was able to grab [712]*712the defendant’s feet, pull him out, and place him in handcuffs.

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Related

State v. Bouvier
209 Conn. App. 9 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2021)
State v. Turner
187 A.3d 454 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Angel M.
183 A.3d 636 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Joseph
165 A.3d 241 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2017)
Ampero v. Comm'r of Corr.
157 A.3d 1192 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2017)
State v. Herring
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2014

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
72 A.3d 435, 144 Conn. App. 706, 2013 WL 3889771, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ampero-connappct-2013.