State v. Giraud

783 A.2d 1019, 258 Conn. 631, 2001 Conn. LEXIS 483
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedNovember 27, 2001
DocketSC 16016
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 783 A.2d 1019 (State v. Giraud) 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. Giraud, 783 A.2d 1019, 258 Conn. 631, 2001 Conn. LEXIS 483 (Colo. 2001).

Opinion

Opinion

MCDONALD, C. J.

The defendant appeals from ajudgment of conviction, rendered after a jury verdict of guilty, of the crimes of murder, felony murder, robbery in the first degree, larceny in the second degree, and kidnapping in the first degree. The defendant claims that the trial court improperly failed to grant a defense witness immunity from prosecution, and that the trial court improperly found that that defense witness properly had invoked his fifth amendment right to remain silent. We disagree and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

[633]*633The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. At about 2 a.m. on November 26, 1995, the defendant, Rasheen Giraud, observed the victim, Corey Gamble, pull up in a car to use the telephone at a telephone booth at a Hartford gas station. The defendant approached the victim, asking for a ride to Charter Oak Terrace. Subsequently, the defendant called his companion, Cleve Ward, over to the telephone booth and told Ward that they had a ride. The defendant and Ward entered the car, the defendant in the front passenger seat and Ward in the backseat on the passenger side. The defendant then directed the victim to the boarded-up Rice Heights housing complex. There, the defendant pulled out a gun, put it to the victim’s head and ordered him out of the car. The defendant took the victim to the back of the car and ordered him to remove his clothes. After the victim had removed his clothes, the defendant ordered him to a grassy area and forced him to his knees. The defendant then fired two gunshots at the victim, killing him. The defendant gathered the victim’s clothing and placed it in the backseat of the car. Then the defendant drove the car from Rice Heights to Edwards Street, where he lived.

Later in the morning of November 26, 1995, Hartford police officers were directed to the parking lot at the rear of a building where they discovered the body of the victim, who was wearing only socks. Thereafter, the police interviewed the victim’s mother, who told the police that in the early morning hours of November 26, she had asked her son to move a car that she had rented, a blue 1995 Pontiac Grand Am, from the front of her apartment building. She told police that this was the last time she had seen the victim.

The police then began searching for the car that the victim’s mother had rented. At approximately 9:58 p.m. on November 27, 1995, Hartford police observed the car at a gas station in Hartford. The police pulled the [634]*634car over a short time later. The defendant was driving the car and was wearing boots and a leather coat that had belonged to the victim. In the pocket of the coat was the victim’s electronic organizer. The police then obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s apartment, and there recovered more of the victim’s belongings: a pair of pants, a black leather belt that went with the coat and a set of keys.

The defendant was charged with murder, felony murder, robbery in the first degree, larceny in the second degree, robbery involving an occupied motor vehicle and kidnapping in the first degree. After a jury trial, in June, 1998, the defendant was found guilty on all counts. The trial court, Barry, J., sua sponte, vacated the verdict with respect to the charge of robbery involving an occupied motor vehicle and rendered judgment of guilty on the remaining charges, sentencing the defendant to eighty-five years imprisonment, ten of which are nonsuspendable and nonreduceable. The defendant appealed to the Appellate Court and, pursuant to Practice Book § 65-1 and General Statutes § 51-199 (c), we transferred the appeal to this court.

I

The defendant claims that the trial court improperly failed to grant a defense witness immunity from prosecution. We disagree.

At the trial, the defendant called Dennis Connolly as a defense witness. Before Connolly was sworn, the defendant moved that the state be compelled to grant Connolly immunity “relative to the testimony of Mr. Connolly with the exception [of] any perjury committed by him . . . .” The request did not distinguish between perjury committed before Connolly was granted immunity and perjury committed by him when testifying after such a grant of immunity. Immunity, of course, may not be “ ‘a license to lie’ ” while giving immunized testi[635]*635mony. United States v. Apfelbaum, 445 U.S. 115, 124, 100 S. Ct. 948, 63 L. Ed. 2d 250 (1980).

In order to consider this claim, we examine the record before the trial court. The defendant told the court that Connolly had testified at the probable cause hearing2 as a state’s witness and had been given immunity by the state.3 The defendant contended that, because “nothing [636]*636ha[d] changed,” the state should be required to grant Connolly “the same immunity” as a witness for the defense as it had granted to him as a witness for the state. Defense counsel stated he did not “have any case law to present,” was “not sure if even any case law exists,” but because of the circumstances the same immunity should be granted at the trial.

The state responded that Connolly had been given immunity at the probable cause hearing for making a false statement, a class A misdemeanor as to which the statute of limitations had, at the time of the trial, expired.4 Defense counsel did not dispute this claim.5 The court thereupon denied the defendant’s request.

The defendant now argues in this court that we should empower trial courts to compel the state to grant immunity to defense witnesses in certain circumstances. The defendant acknowledges that no such rule now exists in Connecticut. State v. McIver, 201 Conn. 559, 566-67, 518 A.2d 1368 (1986); State v. McLucas, [637]*637172 Conn. 542, 561, 375 A.2d 1014, cert. denied, 434 U.S. 855, 98 S. Ct. 174, 54 L. Ed. 2d 126 (1977); State v. Simms, 170 Conn. 206, 211, 365 A.2d 821, cert. denied, 425 U.S. 954, 96 S. Ct. 1732, 48 L. Ed. 2d 199 (1976); State v. Reis, 33 Conn. App. 521, 526-27, 636 A.2d 872, cert. denied, 229 Conn. 901, 640 A.2d 118 (1994). The defendant argues, however, that this court should adopt a rule similar to that adopted by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Burns, 684 F.2d 1066 (2d Cir. 1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1174, 103 S. Ct. 823, 74 L. Ed. 2d 1019 (1983). See United States v. Diaz, 176 F.3d 52, 115 (2d Cir. 1999). We recently recognized that some courts, such as the Second Circuit in Bums, have held that under certain circumstances the federal constitution might require the immunization of a defense witness.

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334 Conn. 431 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2020)
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148 A.3d 1059 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2016)
Giraud v. State
53 A.3d 244 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2012)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
783 A.2d 1019, 258 Conn. 631, 2001 Conn. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-giraud-conn-2001.