State v. Brown

984 A.2d 86, 118 Conn. App. 418, 2009 Conn. App. LEXIS 520
Connecticut Appellate Court·Decided December 15, 2009·No. AC 28924·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinion

Opinion

GRUENDEL, J.

The defendant, Tiffany Brown, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-55 (a) (3). On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) there is insufficient evidence *420 to support her conviction of manslaughter in the first degree, (2) the court’s allegedly improper jury instructions violated her due process rights and (3) the court improperly denied her motion to suppress. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The defendant and the victim, Daayon Devane, were involved in a romantic relationship for six or seven months. Throughout their relationship, the defendant and the victim engaged in several arguments that escalated into physical altercations. Not once did the defendant call the police for assistance when such altercations arose. Instead, according to the defendant, on some occasions, she brandished a knife to quell such altercations, and, in each instance, the victim left her apartment.

On the morning of February 22, 2005, the defendant, sensing the possibility of another altercation with the victim, walked to the police station across from her apartment to obtain assistance. At the defendant’s request, the police removed the victim from her apartment. Later that evening, the defendant and a friend drove to a pool hall where they saw the victim. There, the victim informed the defendant that he had been kicked out of his mother’s house and, promising to be on his best behavior, asked to return to her apartment. The defendant acquiesced and together they left the pool hall in the early morning of February 23, 2005.

Upon returning to the defendant’s apartment, the victim became enraged with the defendant for speaking with “mad dudes” at the pool hall. The victim grabbed the defendant’s arm, hit her and pushed her. The defendant then entered the kitchen and brandished a steak knife, instructing the victim to “chill.” As the altercation escalated, the victim followed the defendant into the kitchen, and she stabbed him in the neck with the steak *421 knife. After being stabbed, the victim exclaimed, “yo, babe, look what you’ve done,” exited the defendant’s apartment, ascended the stairs to the second floor of the apartment complex, collapsed and eventually died from blood loss.

When police officers arrived at the second floor landing of the defendant’s apartment complex, they found the defendant cradling the victim. The defendant made several statements in the presence of the police officers. Officer David Payne and Detective Michael Fiumidinisi heard the defendant address the victim: “Wake up, wake up; I didn’t mean to do it.” Payne then asked the defendant about the identity of the victim, to which she responded: “He’s my boyfriend; he came at me.” The defendant told Fiumidinisi: “Mike, I can’t wake [the victim] up.” 1 Fiumidinisi told the defendant to stop cradling the victim to allow medical personnel to assist him. As medical personnel began to assist the victim, Fiumidinisi also asked the defendant about the identity of the victim, to which she responded: “[He] was my boyfriend, and I stabbed him.” Next, Fiumidinisi told the defendant that she was under arrest and placed her inside of a police car. While the defendant was alone in the police car, an officer standing nearby heard the defendant proclaim repeatedly: “He was beating me. I told him to get away from me. Then he fell on the knife. I didn’t mean to stab him.” From there, the defendant was transported to the police station, where she was advised of her Miranda 2 rights before providing a written statement in which she claimed that the victim had run into the knife. Thereafter, a jury trial followed, at the conclusion of which the jury found the defendant guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, and the court *422 rendered judgment accordingly. From that judgment, the defendant appeals.

I

The defendant claims that there was insufficient evidence to support her conviction of manslaughter in the first degree pursuant to § 53a-55 (a) (3). Specifically, the defendant maintains that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she created a grave risk of death and that she evinced an extreme indifference to human life. We disagree.

We review the defendant’s claim, which she preserved through her motions for a judgment of acquittal; see State v. Padua, 273 Conn. 138, 146 n.12, 869 A.2d 192 (2005) (motion for judgment of acquittal on specific charge preserves charge for appeal); initially by setting forth our standard of review. “When reviewing sufficiency of the evidence claims, we [apply] a two part analysis. First, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict. . . . Second, we determine whether, from that evidence and all the reasonable inferences which it yields, a [trier of fact] could reasonably have concluded that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Wideman, 36 Conn. App. 190, 202, 650 A.2d 571 (1994), cert. denied, 232 Conn. 903, 653 A.2d 192 (1995).

Moreover, “[w]e note that the jury must find every element proven beyond a reasonable doubt in order to find the defendant guilty of the charged offense, [but] each of the basic and inferred facts underlying those conclusions need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. ... If it is reasonable and logical for the jury to conclude that a basic fact or an inferred fact is true, the jury is permitted to consider the fact proven and may consider it in combination with other proven facts in determining whether the cumulative effect of all the *423 evidence proves the defendant guilty of all the elements of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Ledbetter, 275 Conn. 534, 542, 881 A.2d 290 (2005), cert. denied, 547 U.S. 1082, 126 S. Ct. 1798, 164 L. Ed. 2d 537 (2006).

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State v. Brown, 984 A.2d 86, 118 Conn. App. 418, 2009 Conn. App. LEXIS 520 (Colo. Ct. App. 2009).

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