State v. Jarmon

CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJanuary 14, 2020
DocketAC42357
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Jarmon (State v. Jarmon) 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. Jarmon, (Colo. Ct. App. 2020).

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. JAMES JARMON (AC 42357) Alvord, Prescott and Flynn, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crimes of home invasion, burglary in the first degree, robbery in the first degree and stealing a firearm in connec- tion with the theft of certain firearms from N’s house, the defendant appealed to this court. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the state presented insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the operability of each of the stolen firearms, as the cumulative effect of the evidence, when construed in a light most favorable to sustaining the jury’s verdict, supported the jury’s ultimate conclusion that the state demonstrated operability beyond a reasonable doubt: the evidence presented sup- ported an inference of operability because, from that evidence, the jury reasonably could have concluded that the guns were operable, as they were stored in N’s bedroom in cases or bags with safety locks on and access was restricted to the bedroom, which evinced an awareness that the firearms were dangerous, and it was reasonable to infer that operable firearms would trigger such concern, and the fact that N’s mother would not permit the firearms to be stored anywhere other than securely in the bedroom and that that ultimatum was assiduously followed by N further supported an inference that the firearms were operable; more- over, the jury reasonably could have inferred that N’s storing of his handgun in a nightstand beside his bed where, while asleep, he might be most vulnerable permitted an inference that he possessed the hand- gun for security purposes, and the jury then could have inferred that such a handgun was operable; furthermore, given that, at the time the firearms were stolen, they had been in N’s possession for no longer than one year and sixteen days from N’s earliest purchase and that the only time the firearms left N’s bedroom was to go to the training grounds, which the jury reasonably could have inferred was a place to fire the guns, the guns were fired at least once during the time N possessed them, and the jury reasonably could have inferred that the firearms were operable upon purchase and remained operable when they were stolen. (One judge dissenting) 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the trial court errone- ously admitted into evidence a letter that he had written to his mother while incarcerated, which was intercepted by a correction officer and forwarded to law enforcement: the defendant’s claim that the trial court erred in determining that the correction officer followed a certain regula- tion when he turned over the correspondence to law enforcement was never distinctly raised at trial and, therefore, was unpreserved and not reviewable on appeal; moreover, the defendant did not prove that he had an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy such that his fourth amendment rights were violated, and, thus, there was no constitutional violation under the third prong of State v. Golding (213 Conn. 233); furthermore, the department regulation at issue was not void for vagueness as applied to the defendant, as the language of the regulation gave notice to the defendant that he could have his mail reviewed if doing so was deemed in the interest of security, order or rehabilitation by prison officials, and a prison official reasonably could have deter- mined that the letter contained plans for criminal activity, such as wit- ness tampering. 3. The defendant’s claim that his conviction of home invasion and burglary violated his constitutional protection against double jeopardy was unavailing; the defendant failed to show that the two charges arose out of the same act or transaction, as the evidence allowed the defendant’s crimes to be separated into parts, each of which constituted a com- pleted offense. Argued September 16, 2019—officially released January 14, 2020

Procedural History Substitute information charging the defendant with crimes of home invasion, burglary in the first degree and robbery in the first degree, and with three counts of the crime of stealing a firearm, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Waterbury and tried to jury before Cremins, J.; verdict and judgment of guilty, from which the defendant appealed to this court. Affirmed. Alice Osedach, assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant). Timothy J. Sugrue, assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Maureen Platt, state’s attor- ney, and Don E. Therkildsen, Jr., senior assistant state’s attorney, for the appellee (state). Opinion

ALVORD, J. The defendant, James Jarmon, appeals from the judgment of conviction of home invasion in violation of General Statutes § 53a-100aa (a) (1), bur- glary in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-101 (a) (3), robbery in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-134 (a) (4), and three counts of stealing a firearm in violation of General Statutes § 53a-212 (a). On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the state presented insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the operability of each fire- arm the defendant stole, (2) the trial court erroneously admitted into evidence a letter written by the then incar- cerated defendant that was intercepted by a correction officer, and (3) the defendant’s conviction of home inva- sion and burglary in the first degree violated his consti- tutional protection against double jeopardy. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On April 12, 2015, Nathaniel Garris attended a birthday party for his nephew. At the party, Garris spoke on the phone with the defendant, whom Garris knew all his life and whom, though they were unrelated, Garris referred to as his ‘‘cousin.’’ It had been about four or five months since Garris and the defendant had seen each other last, and the defendant wanted to ‘‘chill’’ with Garris to ‘‘catch up.’’ The two met up that same day and went to Niko Infanti’s house.1 At Niko’s home, the defendant and Garris began play- ing video games in Niko’s bedroom. At one point, the defendant observed a case in Niko’s bedroom and asked if it contained a guitar, to which Garris responded ‘‘no, that’s a gun.’’2 At another point, Garris retrieved a knife out of Niko’s bedside nightstand, which also contained Niko’s handgun. Thereafter, the defendant participated in a few phone calls; the defendant left Niko’s bedroom to pick up each phone call.

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

Related

Blockburger v. United States
284 U.S. 299 (Supreme Court, 1931)
State v. Miles
903 A.2d 675 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2006)
State v. Edwards
918 A.2d 1008 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2007)
State v. THOMAS W.
974 A.2d 19 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2009)
State v. Winot
988 A.2d 188 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2010)
State v. Faison
967 A.2d 507 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2009)
State v. Faison
962 A.2d 860 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2009)
State v. Beavers
912 A.2d 1105 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2007)
State v. Monahan
7 A.3d 404 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2010)
State v. THOMAS W.
22 A.3d 1242 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2011)
Plumb v. Griffin
50 A. 1 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1901)
State v. Schovanec
163 A.3d 581 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2017)
State v. Houghtaling
163 A.3d 563 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2017)
State v. Myers
174 A.3d 197 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2017)
State v. Holmes
189 A.3d 151 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Bennett
204 A.3d 49 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2019)
State v. Bumgarner-Ramos
203 A.3d 619 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2019)
State v. Porter
182 A.3d 625 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2018)
Robnett v. United States
107 S. Ct. 931 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Drisdelle v. City of Hartford
491 A.2d 1104 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State v. Jarmon, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-jarmon-connappct-2020.