State v. Coleman

37 A.3d 713, 304 Conn. 161
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedMarch 20, 2012
Docket18519
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 37 A.3d 713 (State v. Coleman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Coleman, 37 A.3d 713, 304 Conn. 161 (Colo. 2012).

Opinion

37 A.3d 713 (2012)
304 Conn. 161

STATE of Connecticut
v.
Willie James COLEMAN.

No. 18519.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued January 4, 2012.
Decided March 20, 2012.

*715 Jon L. Schoenhorn, Hartford, for the appellant (defendant).

Laurie N. Feldman, special deputy assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, state's attorney, and Anthony Bochicchio, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

*716 ROGERS, C.J., and NORCOTT, PALMER, ZARELLA, McLACHLAN, EVELEIGH and HARPER, Js.

HARPER, J.

The defendant, Willie James Coleman, was convicted, following a jury trial, of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a in connection with the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend, Twonna White. The trial court imposed a sentence of forty-five years imprisonment, and thereafter the defendant appealed directly to this court pursuant to General Statutes § 51-199(b)(3). On appeal, the defendant contends that the state offered insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt his intent to kill White, that the trial court improperly instructed the jury that it could infer such intent from the number of wounds he had inflicted on her and that an improper statement by the prosecutor in closing argument deprived him of a fair trial. We affirm the judgment.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On July 8, 2008, at approximately 5:30 p.m., the defendant placed a 911 call from his apartment reporting that he had "just stabbed [his] girlfriend" and requesting an ambulance. At the time the defendant placed the call, White still was conscious. In response to questions from the 911 operator as to White's condition, the defendant stated that he had "[s]tabbed her in the back and in the front a couple of times" and that, with respect to the means by which he had inflicted these wounds, "it was a fork and... then I used a knife too." The operator inquired as to what had caused the incident, and the defendant explained: "Well, she want to keep on talking about all the people that she got coming in my house, and I'm tired of it, had enough of it, all the people that she fucking around with, and I'm tired of it." Following a comment by the operator indicating that police officers were on their way, the defendant stated: "I'm not going nowhere. You know, I did it, you know. I ain't scared of nothing.... I'm just tired, that's all it is. I got tired.... I just got home from the court... pay the fine and all that.[1] I'm sick of it. Enough is enough. Enough is enough."

When Officers Aaron Boisvert and Robert Quaglini of the Hartford police department arrived on the scene, the defendant again acknowledged to Boisvert that he had stabbed White. Boisvert handcuffed the defendant, placed him on a bed and then went into the kitchen to aid White. A two-pronged grill fork and a black handled steak knife were lying near White's body in plain view. While Boisvert attempted to ascertain the location of White's wounds, he heard the defendant say that he was tired of White bringing other men to the apartment and then telling the defendant about those sexual encounters.

The defendant reiterated the impetus for the attack in voluntary statements to Quaglini while being escorted to the police cruiser and to Detective Seth Condon at the police station. The defendant told Quaglini that he and White had been drinking and that "[s]he got to my head. She started telling me about all the guys she was fucking and I stabbed her with a fork and a knife...." The defendant later told Condon that, after the drinking and White's boasts of infidelity, he had "snapped" and stabbed her, but had not meant to hurt or kill her.

While these events transpired, White received medical aid, including chest and abdominal surgery, but she did not survive. The medical examiner's autopsy revealed *717 that White had sustained the following external injuries: cuts on the back of two fingers on her left hand that appeared to be "defense wounds ... where somebody might be trying to fend off a weapon"; superficial cuts on the back of her left hand and on the middle of her back; a pair of puncture wounds, consistent with a barbeque type fork, in the superficial layer of the skin in her back; a pair of scrapes on her left back; a deeper scrape to her left upper back; and a cut on her scalp. None of these wounds contributed to her death. The cause of death was a single stab wound in White's chest, from the front left of her breastbone into her heart. The examiner was unable to determine the sequence of the wounds.

At trial, the court agreed to the defendant's request for the jury to be instructed on lesser included offenses to murder, acknowledging that there was evidence supporting the defendant's contention that he did not intend to kill White, and his request for an instruction on the affirmative defense to murder of extreme emotional disturbance. Thereafter, the court instructed the jury on murder, manslaughter in the first degree, manslaughter in the second degree and criminally negligent homicide. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the murder charge and the trial court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict. This direct appeal followed.

I

The defendant's first claim challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he had the specific intent to kill White. The defendant claims that the totality of the evidence proves only that he committed manslaughter in the first degree. Specifically, the defendant points to his 911 call seeking help for White, White's still conscious condition when police arrived, the mostly empty bottles of rum and malt liquor in the kitchen that supported his assertion that he and White had been drinking, his statements to the police officers indicating that he had not meant to hurt White and that he had "snapped" after hearing White boast about her sexual relations with other men and, most importantly, the fact that all but one of the wounds he had inflicted on White were superficial. We conclude that the evidence is sufficient to support the jury's verdict.

In light of the evidence cited by the defendant, undoubtedly a jury properly could have concluded that the state had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had intended to kill White. To reach such a conclusion, the jury would have had to credit evidence and draw inferences that favored the defendant's version of events. Under our well established standard for review of the sufficiency of the evidence, however, we take the opposite view of the evidence, applying a two part test. "First, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict. Second, we determine whether upon the facts so construed and the inferences reasonably drawn therefrom the [jury] reasonably could have concluded that the cumulative force of the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt....

"[P]roof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all possible doubt ... nor does proof beyond a reasonable doubt require acceptance of every hypothesis of innocence posed by the defendant that, had it been found credible by the [jury], would have resulted in an acquittal.... On appeal, we do not ask whether there is a reasonable view of the evidence that would support a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. We ask, instead, whether there is a reasonable view of the evidence that supports the [jury's] verdict of guilty." (Internal quotation marks *718 omitted.) State v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Iverson
352 Conn. 422 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2025)
State v. Carlson
226 Conn. App. 514 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2024)
Kos v. Lawrence + Memorial Hospital
334 Conn. 823 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2020)
State v. Newton
194 A.3d 272 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2018)
State v. Bellamy
147 A.3d 655 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2016)
Doe v. Boy Scouts of America Corp.
147 A.3d 104 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2016)
State v. Elias V.
147 A.3d 1102 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2016)
State v. Phillips
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2015
State v. Book
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2015
State v. Reddick
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2014
Ramey v. Commissioner of Correction
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2014
State v. Lee
52 A.3d 736 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2012)
State v. Francione
46 A.3d 219 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2012)
State v. Gonzalez
41 A.3d 340 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
37 A.3d 713, 304 Conn. 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-coleman-conn-2012.