State v. Guzman

955 A.2d 72, 110 Conn. App. 263, 2008 Conn. App. LEXIS 445
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedSeptember 16, 2008
DocketAC 27609
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 955 A.2d 72 (State v. Guzman) 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. Guzman, 955 A.2d 72, 110 Conn. App. 263, 2008 Conn. App. LEXIS 445 (Colo. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

Opinion

WEST, J.

The defendant, Carlos A. Guzman, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of robbery in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-134 (a) (2). On appeal, the defendant claims that the court improperly (1) submitted the BB guns at issue to the jury with suppression hearing evidence tags on them, (2) limited the scope of his closing argument by precluding him from arguing whether a BB gun was a weapon or a deadly weapon under General Statutes § 53a-3 (6), and (3) reconstituted the jury by (a) dismissing juror K and (b) failing to remove juror M. 1 We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On August 30, 2004, between 2 and 2:30 a.m., Joseph Vega was wandering around Cherry Street in Waterbury, at which time Pablo Texidor, an acquaintance of Vega’s, drove up in his light blue-gray Nissan. While Vega was telling Texidor that he was attempting to find some drugs, the defendant walked out of the building where he lived on Cherry Street. The defendant was Vega’s former neighbor and friend, and he was also acquainted with Texidor. At this point, the three men *266 decided that, because none of them had money and all of them wanted drugs, they would rob a drug dealer. Texidor agreed to drive the men in his car, and the defendant agreed to use his BB gun, which he retrieved from his apartment after the men had formulated a plan, to intimidate the victims and to prevent a struggle.

The three men then got into the car and headed out to accomplish their plan. First, they stopped at the home of the defendant’s cousin so the defendant could retrieve a second BB gun. After retrieving the second BB gun, the three men headed to the “drug spot” on Glenridge Street in Waterbury. When they arrived at Glenridge Street, Texidor remained with the parked car while the defendant and Vega walked to the “drug spot. ” The defendant and Vega approached a group of people who directed them to a man standing nearby, whom they referred to as “New York,” who later was identified as Jesse Brown. Brown told the defendant and Vega that he had no drugs and that they should return in five or ten minutes. After walking back to the car and reporting what had happened, Texidor suggested that they rob Brown of his money and not wait for more drugs to arrive. As a result, the three men returned to the “drug spot” to implement the new plan. This time, all three men got out of the car, but only the defendant and Vega were brandishing guns. They approached a group of people, which included Brown and the other people they had approached initially. Both the defendant and Vega, armed with their BB guns, demanded that the individuals give them their money. Vega decided to rip the gold chains from the neck of a female in the group. The robbery was accomplished quickly, and then the three men got back into Texidor’s car and drove to Cherry Street, where they dropped off the defendant. Texidor and Vega continued to drive around.

Subsequently, two Waterbury police officers on patrol saw Texidor’s vehicle traveling at a high rate *267 of speed and stopped it. Both Vega and Texidor were arrested on charges of possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Meanwhile, Kimberly Larson, the woman whose gold chains were stolen by Vega, had called the police to report the robbery and had provided the police officers with a description of the vehicle used in the robbery. Subsequently, Larson was taken to the place where the officers were holding Texidor and Vega. She identified them as participants in the robbery. Vega subsequently cooperated with the police investigation and confessed to having planned and carried out the robbery with Texidor and the defendant. As a result, the defendant was arrested.

The defendant was charged with two counts of robbery in the first degree in violation of § 53a-134 (a) (2). 2 After a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of count one but found not guilty on count two. On March 22, 2006, the court imposed a total effective sentence of thirteen years incarceration, with a mandatory minimum of five years, followed by four years of special parole. This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.

I

First, the defendant claims that the court improperly submitted the BB guns to the jury with suppression hearing tags on them. We do not agree.

The following additional procedural and factual history is necessary for our review of the defendant’s claim. On December 16, 2005, the defendant filed a *268 motion to suppress the BB guns, which the court denied on January 5, 2006, after a hearing. At the hearing, the BB guns, along with several photographs taken of them, were introduced as full exhibits. As a result, each gun was marked with an exhibit sticker, which was placed on the evidence bag containing each gun. Subsequently, the BB guns were introduced as full exhibits at the defendant’s trial. Again, each gun was marked with an exhibit sticker. Because the motion to suppress stickers had not been removed from the bags containing the guns, there were two stickers on the bags after the BB guns were introduced at trial.

Prior to jury deliberations, the court gave counsel the opportunity to review the exhibits that were going to be submitted to the jury in the deliberation room. At that point, the defendant objected to the jury’s being able to view the BB guns with the motion to suppress stickers still attached to the evidence bags. The defendant asked if the court could “obscure the sticker that says suppression . ...” In support of his objection, the defendant stated that the jury would receive “evidence that indicates that . . . there was a motion to suppress [the BB guns] and that the court obviously denied that motion and allowed it into evidence, which . . . suggests that the court in some way is . . . sanctioning the validity of the evidence .... Remember, we have two different versions; they might try to figure that out.” In response, the court denied the request, stating that “to the extent that there are appellate issues raised with respect to the suppression hearing and suppression motion, those exhibits need to be identified as they were at the suppression hearing. So, we certainly can’t permanently obscure them.” Furthermore, the court stated that “[c]ertainly, the jury is aware that there were prior days of testimony that they were not privy to. I’ve given them plenty of instructions that they are to admit only evidence properly admitted in the *269 case. I have expressed my opinion to them that I have no opinion as to the outcome of the case. So, I think they need to stay as they’ve been marked.”

On appeal, the defendant argues that his right to a fair trial by an impartial jury was violated when the court improperly submitted the BB guns to the jury with motion to suppress stickers affixed to the evidence bags containing the guns. He claims that the jury was free to consider the suppression hearing stickers, which signified that the defendant had attempted to exclude the BB guns from evidence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
955 A.2d 72, 110 Conn. App. 263, 2008 Conn. App. LEXIS 445, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-guzman-connappct-2008.