State v. Knox

CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedNovember 24, 2020
DocketAC41168, AC41644
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Knox (State v. Knox) 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. Knox, (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. RICKIE LAMONT KNOX (AC 41168) (AC 41644) Alvord, Alexander and Harper, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crime of criminal possession of a firearm in connection with the shooting death of the victim, and with being a persistent serious felony offender, the defendant appealed to this court. The victim and some friends argued outside a cafe with another group that included the defendant. At some point, the defendant withdrew a handgun. The victim appeared to reach for a gun in his waistband and the defendant shot the victim, who fell to the ground injured. The victim discharged his gun while on the ground. The defendant then fled the scene with his gun. The victim later died as a result of his injuries. Approximately one month after the incident, the defendant was arrested and was briefly interviewed by a detective, B, before invoking his right to counsel, ending the interview. The next day, the defendant informed another officer that he wanted to speak with B. During this second interview, B informed the defendant of his Miranda rights (384 U.S. 436). The defendant expressly stated that he understood and waived these rights. During the course of the second interview, the defendant admitted to being outside the cafe at the time of the shooting. Certain statements made by the defendant during his second interview with B were admitted into evidence. After a jury trial, the defendant was found guilty of criminal possession of a firearm and tampering with physical evidence and with being a persistent serious felony offender. Thereafter, the trial court granted the defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal as to the charge of tampering with physical evidence, and the state, on the granting of permission, appealed to this court. Held: 1. The trial court properly granted the defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal with respect to the charge of tampering with physical evi- dence, as no reasonable trier of fact could have found the defendant guilty; the state presented insufficient evidence that the defendant intended to impair the availability of his gun in a subsequent criminal investigation, there having been no evidence regarding the defendant’s intent, apart from the evidence that, after shooting the victim, the defen- dant left the scene with the gun; moreover, the state’s claim that it could rely on the defendant’s prior felony conviction to support a finding that the defendant had removed the gun from the scene to avoid a charge of criminal possession of a firearm and, therefore, tampered with physical evidence, was unavailing, as evidence of that conviction had been admit- ted by stipulation only for the limited purpose of establishing an element of the crime of criminal possession of a firearm. 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that his statements made to the police during the second interview should have been excluded because he made an ambiguous request for counsel that required the police to stop the interview and clarify this request pursuant to State v. Purcell (331 Conn. 318); the defendant’s explanation to B that he had changed his mind about speaking with the police because a lawyer had not come to see him after the first interview and he felt ‘‘left for dead,’’ would not have caused a reasonable officer to construe that explanation as an ambiguous request for counsel as that statement did not contain any of the conditional or hedging terms that have been deemed ambigu- ous or equivocal invocations of that right, and the defendant made no clear and unequivocal request for an attorney; moreover, the conclusion that the defendant’s explanation was not a request for counsel was supported by the circumstances of the two interviews, including, at outset of the second interview, the defendant’s indication that he did not want to be recorded, his expressed concern for his safety, and his reluctance to identify certain individuals involved in other criminal activity, and, at the first interview, the defendant, who B knew to have been involved in previous criminal matters, had unambiguously invoked his right to counsel, which resulted in the termination of that interview. 3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in making its evidentiary ruling regarding the admission of certain portions of B’s interview with the defendant: the court’s decision to admit only that portion of the interview in which the defendant identified himself in a photograph taken from a surveillance video on the night of the shooting and to not admit the portion the defendant sought to introduce in which he identified another man in the photograph as the shooter did not violate the applicable rule (§ 1-5) of the Connecticut Code of Evidence because the evidence the defendant sought to introduce did not change or alter the fact that he identified himself as present at the scene and would not demonstrate that the portion of the interview that was introduced had been taken out of context; moreover, the defendant failed to establish that the court’s evidentiary rulings violated his constitutional rights to due pro- cess and to present a complete defense. Argued September 9—officially released November 24, 2020

Procedural History

Two part substitute information charging the defen- dant, in the first part, with the crimes of murder, crimi- nal possession of a firearm, and tampering with physical evidence and, in the second part, with being a persistent serious felony offender, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Waterbury, and tried to the jury before Alander, J.; verdict of guilty of criminal possession of a firearm, tampering with physical evi- dence, and with being a persistent serious felony offender; thereafter, the court granted the defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal as to the charge of tampering with physical evidence; subsequently, the court, Alander, J., rendered judgment of guilty of crimi- nal possession of a firearm and enhanced the defen- dant’s sentence for being a persistent serious felony offender, from which the state, on the granting of per- mission, and the defendant filed separate appeals to this court. Affirmed. James M. Ralls, assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Maureen Platt, state’s attor- ney, and Terence Mariani and Elena Palermo, senior assistant state’s attorneys, for the appellant in Docket No. AC 41168 (state). James M.

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

Related

Miranda v. Arizona
384 U.S. 436 (Supreme Court, 1966)
Edwards v. Arizona
451 U.S. 477 (Supreme Court, 1981)
Smith v. Illinois
469 U.S. 91 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Davis v. United States
512 U.S. 452 (Supreme Court, 1994)
Cousins v. Nelson
866 A.2d 620 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2005)
Damick v. Planning & Zoning Commission
256 A.2d 428 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1969)
State v. Acquin
448 A.2d 163 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1982)
State v. Pommer
955 A.2d 637 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2008)
State v. Garcia
7 A.3d 355 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2010)
State v. Brundage
87 A.3d 582 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2014)
O'Hara v. Hartford Oil Heating Co.
138 A. 438 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1927)
State v. Dickson
141 A.3d 810 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2016)
State v. Norman P.
151 A.3d 877 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2016)
State v. Mark
154 A.3d 564 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2017)
State v. Mark
154 A.3d 572 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2017)
State v. Richard P.
181 A.3d 107 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Harris
193 A.3d 1223 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Greene
200 A.3d 213 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Brett B.
200 A.3d 706 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

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