State v. Lanier

205 Conn. App. 586
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 6, 2021
DocketAC43671
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 205 Conn. App. 586 (State v. Lanier) 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. Lanier, 205 Conn. App. 586 (Colo. Ct. App. 2021).

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. TRAVIS LANIER (AC 43671) Bright, C. J., and Moll and Bear, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted of the crime of burglary in the second degree in connection with a confrontation in the victim’s apartment, the defendant appealed to this court, claiming, inter alia, that his constitutional rights to confronta- tion and to present a defense were violated when the trial court pre- cluded him from cross-examining the victim about matters pertaining to the victim’s bias against him and motive to falsify his claims to the police. The victim, the defendant and M had been at a bar when the defendant asked the victim if he could borrow twenty dollars. The victim gave the defendant the money and stated that he had other money at home for his rent. When the bar closed, the defendant invited the victim to his apartment, where he and M punched the victim and asked him about a watch he allegedly had stolen from M. The men then went to the victim’s apartment, where the defendant took $400 and threatened to shoot the victim if he talked to the police. The state charged the defendant with six crimes, including burglary in the second degree by entering or remaining unlawfully in the victim’s apartment with the intent to commit any, some or all of the underlying crimes of robbery in the first degree, robbery in the second degree, threatening in the second degree in violation of statute (§ 53a-62 (a) (1)) and larceny in the sixth degree. Prior to trial, the defendant filed a motion in limine seeking to impeach the victim’s credibility with evidence of his felony conviction of driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drugs, which had occurred prior to the incident with the defendant and M, and for which the victim was serving a sentence of probation both at the time of the incident with the defendant and M and at the time of trial. The defendant claimed, inter alia, that there would likely be testi- mony that the victim’s conduct during the incident with the defendant and M violated the terms of the victim’s probation, and that such evi- dence was relevant to the victim’s state of mind during the incident and motive to fabricate claims against the defendant. The defendant also sought to question the victim about a violation of the victim’s probation that occurred prior to the pendency of this case, asserting that, because the victim had not been incarcerated as a result of that violation, he had an interest in staying in the state’s good graces, which was relevant to his veracity and motive to falsify claims against the defendant. The defendant further contended that, because M claimed that the victim had stolen his watch, the victim would have a motive to fabricate his allegations against the defendant if he knew that a condition of his probation was that he not have any new arrests. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion but permitted him to question the victim regard- ing his felony conviction, the name of the crime of which he had been convicted and the fact that he was on probation as a result of that conviction at the time of the incident with the defendant and M and at the time of trial. Held: 1. The trial court did not impermissibly infringe on the defendant’s constitu- tional rights to confrontation or to present a defense and did not abuse its discretion in limiting his cross-examination of the victim: although the court did not explicitly find that the defendant’s proffered line of questioning was irrelevant, it determined that it was speculative and that its probative value was outweighed by its prejudicial effect, the issues related to the victim’s probationary status, which the court excluded, were marginally related, at best, to the issues in the case, and the defendant failed to provide a sufficient foundation to support his claim that his proffered line of questioning related to the victim’s motive to fabricate the allegations against him, as it strained credulity to believe that the victim would initiate contact with the police if he was worried that they would learn he had been drinking alcohol or that the defendant and M would accuse him of larceny as to M’s watch; moreover, the defendant’s attempt to characterize his proffered line of questioning as relating to the victim’s state of mind was tenuous and did not change its speculative nature, this court having previously determined that spec- ulative evidence is irrelevant; furthermore, defense counsel undertook an extensive and robust cross-examination of the victim that addressed many inconsistencies in his testimony, and the jury found the defendant not guilty of five of the six charges against him, which indicated that it did not credit all of the victim’s testimony. 2. The defendant could not prevail on his unpreserved claim that the trial court’s jury instruction on burglary in the second degree misled the jury because the court did not define the terms ‘‘physical threat’’ and ‘‘imminent’’ as elements of the underlying crime of threatening in the second degree: a. The defendant was not entitled to review of his claim pursuant to State v. Golding (213 Conn. 233), as it was clear from the record that, under State v. Kitchens (299 Conn. 447), he implicitly waived his right to challenge the trial court’s instructions on appeal; defense counsel had a meaningful opportunity to review, comment on and suggest modifi- cations to the court’s proposed instructions, she affirmatively accepted the instructions as proposed by repeatedly telling the court that she had no other issues to raise concerning the instructions, the proposed instructions were provided to defense counsel six days prior to when the jury was charged, defense counsel had the opportunity, overnight, to review the final jury instructions as modified from the charging confer- ence with the court, and at no time before or after the final charge did defense counsel raise any issue or objection concerning the instructions as they related to the underlying crime of threatening. b.

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Related

Walker v. Commissioner of Correction
230 Conn. App. 108 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2025)
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209 Conn. App. 779 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2022)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
205 Conn. App. 586, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lanier-connappct-2021.