State v. DeLeon

737 A.2d 496, 54 Conn. App. 278, 1999 Conn. App. LEXIS 301
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 27, 1999
DocketAC 18214
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 737 A.2d 496 (State v. DeLeon) 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. DeLeon, 737 A.2d 496, 54 Conn. App. 278, 1999 Conn. App. LEXIS 301 (Colo. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

Opinion

STOUGHTON, J.

The defendant, Carlos DeLeon, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of one count of risk of injury to a child in violation of General Statutes (Rev. to 1991) § 53-21.1 The defendant was acquitted of one count of sexual assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes (Rev. to 1991) § 53a-70 (a) (2).2 On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) on the facts of this case, charging him with both the count of risk of injury to a child and sexual assault in the first degree constituted double jeopardy, (2) the state failed to present sufficient evidence to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and (3) the trial court improperly required him [280]*280to register as a sex offender pursuant to General Statutes § 54-102r (b) upon his release from incarceration.3 We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The victim’s family was well acquainted with the defendant’s family, and the victim spent a substantial amount of time with the defendant. Between July 22, 1991, and July 21,1993, the defendant, who was twenty-seven years old in July, 1991, took the victim, who was bom on July 22,1980, to his home and on four separate occasions had sexual intercourse with her.4

The defendant directed the victim “not to tell nobody” about their sexual activity and also told her never to write about their sexual activity in a diary. The victim maintained her silence about her sexual activity with the defendant until 1996, in part because she feared the ramifications of revealing the incidents and in part because she was uncertain that the defendant’s behavior was improper because he had never forced her to engage in the sexual activity. The victim reported the incidents in 1996 to Martha Reisman, a psychiatric social worker, while being treated at the Yale Psychiatric Institute.

The state originally filed a long form information containing eight counts, which was later amended to contain only the two counts previously mentioned. Each count of the amended information alleged that the defendant had engaged in sexual intercourse with the victim. The jury convicted the defendant of the count of risk of injury to a child and acquitted him of the count of sexual assault in the first degree. This appeal followed.

[281]*281I

The defendant first claims that the second count, charging risk of injuiy to a child, violated his federal and state constitutional right against double jeopardy. The defendant asserts that, as charged, the second count was “practically indistinguishable” from the first count, which charged sexual assault in the first degree in violation of § 53a-70 (a) (2). This claim is without merit.

“The double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment to the United States constitution provides: [N]or shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb. The double jeopardy clause is applicable to the states through the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment. Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 794, 89 S. Ct. 2056, 23 L. Ed. 2d 707 (1969); State v. Lonergan, 213 Conn. 74, 78, 566 A.2d 677 (1989), cert. denied, 496 U.S. 905, 110 S. Ct. 2586, 110 L. Ed. 2d 267 (1990).” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Otto, 50 Conn. App. 1, 17-18, 717 A.2d 775, cert. denied, 247 Conn. 927, 719 A.2d 1171 (1998). While our state constitution does not contain a specific double jeopardy provision, our Supreme Court has held that “the due process guarantees of article first, § 9, include protection against double jeopardy.” State v. Chicano, 216 Conn. 699, 706, 584 A.2d 425 (1990), cert. denied, 501 U.S. 1254, 111 S. Ct. 2898, 115 L. Ed. 2d 1062 (1991). Indeed, our Supreme Court has held that “as a general rule, the due process clauses of both the United States and Connecticut constitutions have the same meaning and impose similar limitations.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Adams, 38 Conn. App. 643, 655, 662 A.2d 1327, cert. denied, 235 Conn. 908, 665 A.2d 902 (1995). “This constitutional guarantee prohibits not only multiple trials for the same offense, but also multiple punishments for the same offense in a single trial. . . . State v. Patrick, 42 Conn. [282]*282App. 640, 644, 681 A.2d 380 (1996).” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Otto, supra, 18.

The defendant claims that he was subjected to double jeopardy because in charging the statutory offenses involved, sexual assault in the first degree and risk of injury to a child, the state alleged that he engaged in sexual intercourse with the victim. The defendant, however, was convicted and punished only for one of the offenses, risk of injury to a child.

Our analysis is controlled by State v. Gross, 35 Conn. App. 631, 646 A.2d 933, cert. denied, 231 Conn. 932, 649 A.2d 254 (1994). In Gross, the defendant was charged with one count of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and one count of operating a motor vehicle while the ratio of alcohol in his blood was in excess of 0.10 percent. The defendant in Gross was convicted of one of the charges. We held that the prohibition against double jeopardy is not implicated where there has been only one trial and the defendant has been convicted of, and sentenced on, only one offense. Id., 636.

The constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy forbids (1) a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal, (2) a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction and (3) multiple punishments for the same offense. State v. Lonergan, supra, 213 Conn. 78-79. In the present case, the defendant was not subjected to either a second prosecution or to multiple punishments. Accordingly, we conclude that the defendant was not subjected to double jeopardy.

II

The defendant next claims that the state presented insufficient evidence to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the offense of risk of injury to a child. We disagree.

[283]*283In reviewing a sufficiency of the evidence claim, it is well established that we first construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict and then 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 establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Forde, 52 Conn. App. 159, 163, 726 A.2d 132 (1999).

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Related

State v. Deleon
738 A.2d 660 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1999)

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Bluebook (online)
737 A.2d 496, 54 Conn. App. 278, 1999 Conn. App. LEXIS 301, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-deleon-connappct-1999.