State v. Cruz

639 A.2d 534, 33 Conn. App. 849, 1994 Conn. App. LEXIS 96
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedMarch 29, 1994
Docket12261
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 639 A.2d 534 (State v. Cruz) 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. Cruz, 639 A.2d 534, 33 Conn. App. 849, 1994 Conn. App. LEXIS 96 (Colo. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

Spear, J.

The defendant, Justo Cruz, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of robbery in the first degree in violation of General [850]*850Statutes § 53a-134 (a) (3).1 The defendant claims that the trial court (1) improperly instructed the jury that a reasonable doubt is not “a slight doubt,” (2) unfairly marshaled the evidence during its charge to the jury, thereby depriving the defendant of a fair trial, and (3) gave an unbalanced and coercive charge after the jury reported that it was deadlocked five to one. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On March 1, 1992, at approximately 7:40 p.m., the defendant entered the Shell Food Mart at the corner of Sisson Avenue and Park Street in Hartford. After being in the store for about five minutes, he asked the clerk, Amaldo Vega, for change for a dollar. When Vega opened the cash register, the defendant started to take money from the drawer. Vega attempted to close the drawer, but drew back after the defendant brandished a knife and said, “I’ll kill you.” After taking several bills from the cash register, the defendant left the store and fled toward Sisson Avenue.

Officer Oscar Delima of the Hartford police department was dispatched to the scene, where Vega described the robber as a Hispanic male with a light moustache, about five feet, nine inches tall, and weighing approximately 155 pounds. The robber wore a blue hooded sweatshirt with orange lettering and light colored jeans. Delima broadcast Vega’s description of the robber over his police radio. Shortly after receiving the broadcast, Detective Eddie Rivera observed the defendant emerge from a driveway on Sisson Avenue. The defendant, who fit Vega’s description, was carrying a white plastic bag. He ran across the street and entered [851]*851the passenger side of a red Chevrolet Cavalier waiting at a traffic light. Rivera pulled the red car over as it entered the on-ramp to 1-84 east. Within minutes, Officer David Wyman arrived on the scene to assist Rivera. When Wyman approached the car, he saw the defendant stuff something down his shirt. The defendant was then placed in Wyman’s cruiser and Vega was brought to the scene. Vega identified the defendant as the person who had robbed the store, although he now had on different clothes. A search of the white plastic bag revealed light blue jeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt with orange lettering that Vega identified as the clothing worn by the robber. The defendant was then placed under arrest.

At trial, the defendant presented an alibi defense claiming that when the robbery took place, he had been drinking with his nephew, Johnny Sanchez, at Sanchez’ house at 145 Sisson Avenue. Sanchez had called Dickie Madley to give the defendant a ride because the defendant was drunk. Madley was the driver of the red car.

After two days of deliberations, the jury reported that it was deadlocked.2 The court then gave a “Chip Smith charge” which is frequently given to juries that report an impasse. State v. Smith, 49 Conn. 376, 386 (1881). The instruction charged the jurors to reach their own conclusion and not simply to acquiesce in the conclusions of the others. The instruction also charged each juror, especially those in the minority, to reexamine carefully his or her position with due regard and deference to the opinion of the others. A verdict of guilty was returned the next day.

I

The defendant first claims that the trial court improperly instructed the jury that a reasonable doubt is not [852]*852a “slight doubt.”3 The defendant took no exception to this language at trial and challenges the instruction for the first time on appeal. The defendant can prevail on an unpreserved claim only if all of the conditions set out in State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 239-40, 567 A.2d 823 (1989), are satisfied. The Golding criteria are as follows: “(1) the record is adequate to review the alleged claim of error; (2) the claim is of constitutional magnitude alleging the violation of a fundamental right; (3) the alleged constitutional violation clearly exists and clearly deprived the defendant of a fair trial; and (4) if subject to harmless error analysis, the state has failed to demonstrate harmlessness of the alleged constitutional violation beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id.

Only the third factor is disputed by the state. The defendant argues that the court’s instruction was an improper quantification of the reasonable doubt standard that resulted in a lessening of the state’s burden of proof, thereby clearly depriving the defendant of a fair trial. We disagree.

The defendant relies principally on Cage v. Louisiana, 498 U.S. 39, 111 S. Ct. 328, 112 L. Ed. 2d 339 (1990), which disapproved instructions describing reasonable doubt as “such doubt as would give rise to a grave uncertainty,” and “actual substantial doubt” and “a [853]*853moral certainty.” Id., 40. The United States Supreme Court stated that “[i]t is plain to us that the words ‘substantial’ and ‘grave,’ as they are commonly understood, suggest a higher degree of doubt than is required for acquittal under the reasonable doubt standard. When those statements are then considered with the reference to ‘moral certainty,’ rather than evidentiary certainty, it becomes clear that a reasonable juror could have interpreted the instruction to allow a finding of guilt based on a degree of proof below that required by the Due Process Clause.” Id., 41.

The defendant argues that the words “a slight doubt” are the “mirror image” of the words “substantial doubt.” He claims that, by instructing the jury that reasonable doubt is something more than a slight doubt, it in effect defined reasonable doubt as substantial doubt, a definition deemed improper under Cage v. Louisiana, supra. This court addressed the use of the words “substantial doubt” in a “reasonable doubt” charge in State v. Dizon, 28 Conn. App. 444, 611 A.2d 432 (1992). We held, after examining the charge as a whole, that there was no constitutional violation by this sole misstatement in a lengthy reasonable doubt charge. Id., 449. This one statement did not rise to the level of the several misstatements contained in the jury instructions in Cage v. Louisiana, supra. State v. Dizon, supra, 448-49.

Although the reasonable doubt instructions here were not as lengthy as those in State v. Dizon, supra, the same reasoning applies. Jury instructions must be examined in their entirety and not clinically dissected. State v. Fernandez, 27 Conn. App. 73, 84-87, 604 A.2d 1308, cert. denied, 222 Conn. 904, 606 A.2d 1330 (1992); State v. Toczko, 23 Conn. App. 502, 507, 582 A.2d 769 (1990). The test is whether reasonable jurors would, on the whole, understand the charge. Francis v. Frank[854]*854lin, 471 U.S. 307, 315-16, 105 S. Ct. 1965, 85 L. Ed. 2d 344 (1985); see also State v. Mason, 186 Conn.

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

Related

Commonwealth v. Fisher
813 A.2d 761 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)
Gager v. Gager, No. Fa 9473635s (Aug. 10, 1995)
1995 Conn. Super. Ct. 9767 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1995)
Cruz v. Warden, No. Cv 93 1672 (Mxt) (Mar. 10, 1995)
1995 Conn. Super. Ct. 2188 (Connecticut Superior Court, 1995)
State v. Cruz
642 A.2d 1210 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
639 A.2d 534, 33 Conn. App. 849, 1994 Conn. App. LEXIS 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cruz-connappct-1994.