State v. Collymore

334 Conn. 431
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedJanuary 21, 2020
DocketSC19868
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 334 Conn. 431 (State v. Collymore) 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. Collymore, 334 Conn. 431 (Colo. 2020).

Opinion

*********************************************** The “officially released” date that appears near the be- ginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be pub- lished in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the be- ginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion.

All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the advance release version of an opinion and the latest version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest version is to be considered authoritative.

The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publica- tions, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. *********************************************** STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. ANTHONY COLLYMORE (SC 19868) Palmer, McDonald, D’Auria, Kahn, Ecker and Vertefeuille, Js.

Syllabus

Pursuant to State v. Dickson (322 Conn. 410), in cases in which the state seeks to present an in-court identification that has not been preceded by a successful identification during a nonsuggestive identification pro- cedure, the state must request permission to do so, and the trial court may grant such permission only if it determines that there is no factual dispute as to the identity of the perpetrator or that the ability of the eyewitness to identify the defendant is not at issue. Convicted of the crimes of felony murder, attempt to commit robbery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, and criminal possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting of the victim, the defendant appealed to the Appellate Court. The defendant and two friends, B and V, had driven to an apartment complex intending to commit a robbery. B waited in the car while the defendant and V, who were armed with guns, attempted to rob the victim. When the victim fled, the defendant and V fired gunshots, fatally wounding the victim, and then drove with B to the apartment of a friend, O. B, V and O gave statements to the police that incriminated the defendant. B also inculpated the defendant during his testimony at the defendant’s probable cause hearing, and V inculpated the defendant when he pleaded guilty to charges related to the shooting. At trial, the state granted B, V and O immunity from prosecution, pursuant to statute (§ 54-47a), in exchange for their testimony during the state’s case-in-chief. B, V and O then repudiated their prior statements that incriminated the defendant and testified so as to exonerate him during the state’s case-in-chief. The state introduced their prior inconsistent statements and questioned them regarding those statements. On cross-examination, defense counsel questioned B, V and O extensively about their prior, incriminating state- ments and their new, exculpatory testimony. When B, V and O were later called to testify in the defendant’s case-in-chief, the prosecutor informed them that the state was not extending its grant of immunity to their testimony for the defense. The trial court informed B, V and O that the law was unclear as to whether the immunity they already had been granted extended to their testimony as defense witnesses and stated that they should be guided by the advice of their counsel. B, V and O then invoked their fifth amendment rights against self-incrimina- tion. The defendant claimed, inter alia, that the trial court violated his rights to due process and to compulsory process when it improperly permitted the state to revoke the immunity that it had granted to B, V and O. He contended that the testimony of B, V and O would have addressed exculpatory, material and noncollateral matters, and would have rehabilitated his credibility and the credibility of B, V and O. The Appellate Court upheld the defendant’s conviction and rejected his constitutional claim, reasoning that the state did not revoke the immunity it had granted to B, V and O when they were called to testify in the defendant’s case-in-chief but, rather, refused to grant additional immu- nity for any transaction, matter or thing not testified to and immunized during the state’s case. The Appellate Court also determined, inter alia, that the defendant was not constitutionally entitled to have additional immunity granted to B, V and O because he failed to establish that the additional testimony would have been essential to his defense or would not have been cumulative. The defendant thereafter filed a motion for reconsideration in light of Dickson, a case that was decided after his criminal trial but that applied retroactively to all cases then pending on appeal, claiming that the trial court had improperly permitted two witnesses, the victim’s mother, R, and the victim’s brother, G, to make first time in-court identifications of him as one of the persons who shot at the victim, in violation of the rule that such identifications must be prescreened by the trial court. The Appellate Court denied the motion. On the granting of certification, the defendant appealed to this court. Held: 1.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
334 Conn. 431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-collymore-conn-2020.