State v. Greene

200 A.3d 213, 186 Conn. App. 534
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedDecember 11, 2018
DocketAC39995
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 200 A.3d 213 (State v. Greene) 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. Greene, 200 A.3d 213, 186 Conn. App. 534 (Colo. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

BISHOP, J.

*537 The defendant, Antoine Greene, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of one count of manslaughter in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-55 (a) (1). 1 The defendant claims that the trial court erred by (1) denying his motion to dismiss after the court's finding of no probable cause for the state's initial charge of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a, 2 and (2) denying his motions for a judgment of acquittal and for a new trial on the basis that the evidence was insufficient to support a finding that he intended to cause serious physical injury to the victim. 3 We affirm the judgment of conviction.

*217 The following procedural history and facts, including what the jury reasonably could have found from the evidence adduced at trial, are relevant to our consideration of the issues at hand. On March 21, 2015, the defendant was living with his mother, Jackie Greene, and the victim, William Greene, who was his father, in New Britain in the first floor apartment of a three-family house. The defendant's mother departed the home some time prior to 6 a.m., leaving the victim sleeping in the *538 bedroom and the defendant awake in the living room. At approximately 8:11 a.m., New Britain police received an emergency call from the defendant stating that the victim was lying on the floor not breathing and that there was blood all over the carpet. At 8:13 a.m., New Britain police arrived at the apartment, followed shortly thereafter by emergency medical personnel.

When the police arrived they noticed a German shepherd on the back porch that they asked the defendant to restrain. The defendant reported that he and the victim were the only occupants in the apartment. Upon entering the apartment, the police found the victim lying face down on the living room floor in a pool of blood. The police did not locate any signs of forced entry. After securing the apartment, police allowed medical personnel to enter and tend to the victim. In the course of rendering medical assistance, the medical personnel turned over the victim's body and observed blood steaming from where the body had been lying, which indicated to the medical personnel that the victim's injuries were recent. On further examination, the medical personnel noticed an approximately six inch wound to the victim's neck. Detecting no pulse, the medical personnel presumed the victim's time of death to be approximately 8:27 a.m. While the medical personnel were tending to the victim, the police took multiple photographs and gathered evidence, which included seizing several knives from the kitchen.

While being questioned at the scene, the defendant indicated that he had not heard anyone in the apartment between the time of his mother's departure and his discovery of the victim lying on the living room floor. The police did not observe any blood on the defendant or his clothing. They described the defendant's demeanor as calm and not upset. The defendant agreed to accompany police back to the New Britain Police Department, where he was interviewed for several *539 hours and given the opportunity to speak with his mother and his uncle, Scott Davis.

The medical examiner who conducted an autopsy on the victim on March 22, 2015, noted cutting injuries to the victim's neck, as well as a cut to his left thumb. He opined that the injuries were consistent with having been inflicted by sharp force. The examiner testified that the victim's sharp force injuries were consistent with injuries caused by a knife. The examiner determined, as well, that the victim's right neck sharp force injury had severed the victim's carotid artery. He described the wound to the right side of the neck as a cut, due to the fact that the injury length on the skin exceeded the depth into the skin. The left side neck injury was a separate two inch cut. Finally, the medical examiner testified that the injury to the thumb was consistent with a defensive wound.

After the defendant's arrest on March 22, 2015, the state charged the defendant, *218 by way of information filed on March 23, 2015, with murder in violation of § 53a-54a. Pursuant to General Statutes § 54-46a, 4 a probable cause hearing for the murder charge was held on June 8, June 9, and July 14, 2015. During the court's oral ruling on probable cause for the murder charge on July 21, 2015, the court, Alander , J. , indicated that it found *540 incriminating the fact that the defendant and the victim were alone in the house at the time of the victim's death, that there were no signs of forced entry or any entry by a third party, that the front door was blocked and the back door was locked and guarded by a dog, that there were no weapons found near the victim or in the room where the victim was found, that the victim had not been deceased for very long when police and medical personnel arrived, that the victim had defensive wounds, and that DNA testing could not eliminate the victim as a contributor to blood found on a steak knife retrieved from the kitchen. The court found several facts to be exculpatory, including the fact that there was no blood observed on the defendant's body, hands, or clothes, that there were no signs of a struggle in the home, and that, because medical personnel opined that the victim was dead for less than one-half hour prior to being declared dead at 8:27 a.m. and the defendant's 911 call was at 8:11 a.m., this timeline gave the defendant very little time to change his clothes, wash his hands and body, clean the knife, and remove the knife from the scene before calling the police.

The court discounted testimony from Agustin Morales-Rojas, who testified that, while he and the defendant were incarcerated together, the defendant had told him that he had killed the victim. Additionally, the court did not credit the testimony of the defendant's uncle that the defendant had been under the influence of drugs on the day of the homicide. On the basis of the evidence adduced at the probable cause hearing, the court found that the state had failed to establish that the defendant intentionally killed the victim and, thus, concluded that the state had not established probable cause to charge the defendant with murder. Following the court's decision, the state, that same day and pursuant to Practice Book § 36-17, moved to file an amended information charging the defendant with *541 manslaughter in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-55 (a) (1).

On August 18, 2015, the defendant filed a pretrial motion to dismiss the substitute information pursuant to General Statutes § 54-56 5

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

Related

State v. Russo
221 Conn. App. 729 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2023)
State v. Tinsley
340 Conn. 425 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2021)
State v. Knox
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2020
State v. Shin
193 Conn. App. 348 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2019)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
200 A.3d 213, 186 Conn. App. 534, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-greene-connappct-2018.