State v. Kirby

46 A.3d 1056, 137 Conn. App. 29, 2012 WL 2892221, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 346
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 24, 2012
DocketAC 32562
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 46 A.3d 1056 (State v. Kirby) 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. Kirby, 46 A.3d 1056, 137 Conn. App. 29, 2012 WL 2892221, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 346 (Colo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Opinion

LAVINE, J.

The defendant, Russell Kirby, appeals from the 2010 judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury verdict, of kidnapping in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-94 and assault in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § OSa-Ol.1 On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the distinction [31]*31between kidnapping and unlawful restraint is unconstitutionally vague as applied to him and (2) the trial court failed to temper the vagueness in the distinction in its charge to the jury. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. At the time of the incident, the victim, Leslie Buck, was a fifty-seven year old second grade teacher in the Stonington public school system.2 She had been a teacher for more than thirty years and was a member of Alpha Delta Kappa (sorority), an honorary sorority for teachers. The sorority held dinner meetings at the Mystic Hilton on the first Thursday of the month, beginning at 6:30 p.m. and ending at approximately 8 p.m. On May 2, 2002, the victim attended a sorority meeting and left the Hilton shortly after 8 p.m. She informed her friend, Judith Barber, and others that, on her way home, she intended to take dessert to her elderly mother, Katherine Edmonson.

At approximately 10:30 p.m., Timothy Thornton, a Stonington patrol officer, was dispatched to the Buck residence at 77 Masons Island Road in Mystic after Charles Buck (Buck),3 the victim’s husband, telephoned the Stonington police department to report that the victim was late returning from the sorority meeting. After obtaining information from Buck, Thornton went in search of the victim at a supermarket and drugstore where she was known to shop. At approximately 10:45 p.m., Buck telephoned Barber and asked her if she knew the victim’s whereabouts.4 Barber told Buck that the [32]*32victim had intended to visit Edmonson, but Buck said he had driven past Edmonson’s house, which was dark.

At 11:07 p.m., Buck again telephoned the Stonington police department to report that the victim had returned home. The dispatcher, Allyson Gomes, spoke with the victim and thought that she sounded upset. Gomes so informed Thornton, and he returned to the Buck residence. When he arrived, Thornton saw the victim’s white Buick in the garage and found the victim crying hysterically in the kitchen. While he tried to calm the victim, Thornton observed that the victim’s hair was in disarray, there were marks under her eyes, red marks around her wrists and that her stockings were tom at the knees. He summoned an ambulance. The victim took Thornton into the garage and described what had happened to her when she first returned from the sorority meeting. The victim complained of chest pains.

When the ambulance arrived, Jeremy Knapp, an emergency medical technician, interviewed and examined the victim. Knapp described the victim as distraught. She complained of pain in her wrists, hands, shoulders, the right side of her chest and stomach. The victim told Knapp that she had been kidnapped. According to Knapp, the victim had severe shoulder pain because her hands had been tied behind her back for a long time, her hands were swollen and bruised and she had abrasions on her knees. The victim’s chest and stomach pain were the result of having been punched, and her knees were injured when she was thrown to the floor. The victim also had two small lacerations on the back of her neck at the base of her skull. The victim was taken via ambulance to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London.5

[33]*33When the victim arrived at the hospital, she was calmer and able to tell Molly Cichon, an emergency room nurse, what had happened to her. The incident began in her garage when she first returned from the sorority meeting. She said that the red marks on the back of her neck were caused by a stun gun. Cichon noted bruises on the victim’s neck and petechiae on her face suggestive of strangulation,6 lacerations on her foot and abrasions on her legs and hands. The victim reported that her hands had been bound, which was consistent with the injuries to her hands and wrists. The victim was concerned about her ribs, but X rays revealed no broken bones. The victim was discharged from the hospital at 3 a.m. on May 3, 2002.7

The victim again met with Thornton and other officers to explain her concern for Edmonson’s safety, as the defendant had taken the victim’s key ring, which included a key to Edmonson’s home. The police conducted security checks at both the Edmonson and Buck residences.

While the victim was being examined at the hospital, the police identified the defendant as a suspect. They had reason to believe that the defendant was on foot and searched unsuccessfully for his pickup truck in the vicinity of the Buck residence. After Thornton and Sergeant Keith Beebe, patrol supervisor, and other officers secured the homes of the victim and Edmonson, they met an officer from the Ledyard police department and proceeded to the defendant’s home on an unlit, unpaved road in a rural area of Ledyard.

[34]*34The five officers arrived at the defendant’s home at approximately 4:30 a.m. on May 3, 2002. The defendant was dressed in street clothes when he promptly answered Thornton’s knock on the door. Although he was asked to step outside, the defendant invited the officers into his home. When Beebe asked the defendant if he knew why the officers were there, the defendant stated, “yes.” The defendant also stated, “yes,” when asked whether he had tied up the victim and driven her around and, when asked why he did so, stated that he “needed the money.” He also stated that he was sorry, he had not intended to harm the victim and he “believed that he had a problem.” He also told the police that he had entered the victim’s garage through an unlocked breezeway door. When asked, the defendant told Beebe that the victim’s key ring was on his kitchen counter. Bryan Schneider, a patrol officer, took custody of the key ring.8 Beebe placed the defendant under arrest and advised him of his Miranda rights.9 Schneider handcuffed the defendant and took him to the Stonington police department at approximately 5 a.m.

At the police department, Schneider advised the defendant again of his rights and prepared a waiver of rights form for him to sign. Although the defendant had cooperated with the police in his home, he did not cooperate with them at the police station. He refused to sign the advisement of rights form and stated that he knew that he had done wrong and “didn’t want to go round and round with [the police] with a statement . . . .”

David Knowles, a detective sergeant with the Stoning-ton police department, searched the victim’s Buick. On the floor behind the operator’s seat, Knowles found a [35]*35green canvas bag, United States Army issue, that contained a United States Army issue .45 caliber Colt 1911 pistol, a magazine for the pistol that contained seven live rounds, two electronic stun guns, pieces of rope, a blue rubber ball, a clear plastic bottle containing liquid, a hickory log, two pairs of men’s eyeglasses and a pair of eyeglasses that were identified by a Stonington optician, Clayton Cobb, as belonging to the victim.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
46 A.3d 1056, 137 Conn. App. 29, 2012 WL 2892221, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-kirby-connappct-2012.