State v. Gray

CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedMarch 29, 2022
DocketSC20368
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Gray (State v. Gray) 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. Gray, (Colo. 2022).

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. DAMARQUIS GRAY (SC 20368) Robinson, C. J., and McDonald, D’Auria, Mullins, Kahn, Ecker and Keller, Js.*

Syllabus

Convicted of numerous crimes, including felony murder, in connection with the shooting death of the victim, the defendant appealed to this court. During the course of the defendant’s trial, the trial court detained three eyewitnesses to the shooting, W, G, and H, who were reluctant to testify. Due to the state’s difficulty in locating and serving subpoenas on W and H, the trial court issued material witness warrants pursuant to statute (§ 54-82j) to secure their appearance at trial. After completing his direct examination of W, the prosecutor requested that W be detained overnight to ensure that she return the next day for cross-examination. When W’s assigned counsel indicated that W did not have overnight childcare for her daughter, the court first suggested that the state contact the Department of Children and Families but then gave W time to make childcare arrangements, which she ultimately was successful in doing. The trial court also granted the prosecutor’s request to detain H for an additional night in light of H’s demeanor at trial and his prior efforts to avoid the state’s subpoenas. H’s testimony was then delayed for another day because the testimony of certain other witnesses was prioritized, but the court released H with electronic monitoring at the request of H’s assigned counsel. In addition, although G initially appeared at trial pursuant to a subpoena, she failed to appear the next day because her mother was unavailable to drive her to the courthouse. The court confirmed that G was twenty-one years old and ordered that she be taken into custody pursuant to the capias statute (§ 52-143 (e)). After G was brought to court, the prosecutor requested that she, too, be detained. G’s assigned counsel argued that G was five months pregnant and that her initial appearance indicated her willingness to testify. The court, however, was not satisfied that electronic monitoring would be sufficient to ensure her appearance and ordered that she be held over- night. The following day, the court allowed G’s assigned counsel to attempt to secure electronic monitoring, but those efforts were unsuc- cessful, and G was detained for an additional night before completing her testimony. Defense counsel did not at any time object to the detention of W, G, or H. With respect to the substance of the testimony of the various witnesses, because W and another witness, L, testified that they lacked any memory of the shooting, the prosecutor reenacted portions of their respective grand jury testimony, whereby a court clerk read from the grand jury transcripts containing W’s and L’s answers. Defense counsel did not object to the reenactment but did object to the admission of certain portions of W’s grand jury testimony that were consistent with W’s in-court testimony, pursuant to State v. Whelan (200 Conn. 743), in which this court adopted a hearsay exception allowing the substantive use of prior inconsistent statements. The trial court over- ruled the objection, concluding that the admission of the consistent portions was necessary to avoid confusing the jury. After the reen- actment, the prosecutor moved to introduce the transcripts of W’s and L’s grand jury testimony. Defense counsel objected on the ground that the reenactment rendered the admission of the transcripts cumulative, but the trial court disagreed and admitted the transcripts as full exhib- its. Held: 1. The defendant’s unpreserved claim that the trial court had violated his federal constitutional right to due process by detaining W, G, and H on the ground that such detention had a coercive effect on their testimony, thereby rendering that testimony involuntary, failed under the third prong of State v. Golding (233 Conn. 213), this court having concluded that, although the in-court attendance of W, G, and H was compelled by the material witness process or the issuance of a capias, the detention of those witnesses did nothing more than compel their appearance at trial and did not influence the substance of their testimony: W, G, and H each received the benefit of appointed counsel to advocate for their rights, as well as the conditions of their confinement and the terms of their release, the jury was aware of the circumstances underlying their testimony, as each witness testified that he or she was not testifying voluntarily and had been detained as a material witness but was giving testimony without any influence or seeking favor, and, even though it took several days for each witness to finish his or her testimony, there was no evidence that the inherently coercive aspects of the procedures employed, including the overnight detention, affected the reliability of their in-court testimony; moreover, defense counsel had the opportunity to cross-examine each witness but, rather than questioning them about the circumstances of their in-court testimony, focused on the inconsis- tencies in their various statements, and, in the absence of separate findings concerning the coercive effects of the witnesses’ detention on the substance and voluntariness of their testimony, or any cross- examination on that point, the defendant failed to establish that the witnesses’ testimony, as opposed to the witnesses’ attendance, was compelled; nonetheless, this court emphasized that trial courts always should employ the least restrictive means necessary to ensure a witness’ appearance at trial, urged trial courts to instruct detained witnesses that only their presence is compelled and that the substance of their testimony will not be considered in determining when they will be released from custody, as the trial court instructed H before releasing him with electronic monitoring, and observed several instances in the present case that raised concerns about whether the witnesses’ liberty interests were adequately considered, specifically, placing the burden on the witnesses and G’s counsel, in particular, to seek out electronic monitoring, referring to the power of the Department of Children and Families in responding to W’s childcare concerns, which could have had an unduly coercive effect on W’s testimony, and prioritizing the testimony of other witnesses over that of H. (One justice concurring separately) 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court had abused its discretion in admitting, pursuant to Whelan, both consistent and inconsistent statements from W’s and L’s grand jury testimony: a.

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Gray, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gray-conn-2022.