State v. McKiernan

851 A.2d 1198, 84 Conn. App. 31, 2004 Conn. App. LEXIS 314
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 20, 2004
DocketAC 22839
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 851 A.2d 1198 (State v. McKiernan) 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. McKiernan, 851 A.2d 1198, 84 Conn. App. 31, 2004 Conn. App. LEXIS 314 (Colo. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

Opinion

MCDONALD, J.

The defendant, Liam McKieman, appeals from the judgment of the trial court, rendered after a jury trial, convicting him of sexual assault in the fourth degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-73a (a) (2).1 On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the court’s jury instructions denied him a fair trial and a trial by jury, (2) the court improperly failed to conduct an inquiry, sua sponte, into his competency, (3) the court improperly refused to direct judgment on the [33]*33charges of sexual assault in the first degree and sexual assault in the third degree, and (4) the court improperly refused to disclose the victim’s psychiatric records. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The defendant had met the victim2 approximately one to two years prior to May, 1999. On May 22, 1999, the victim and two of her friends went to a bar in New Haven. Upon leaving the bar at 2 a.m., the victim and her two friends went to the victim’s house in Hamden. While at her house, the victim, fully clothed, fell asleep on the kitchen counter, after taking prescribed medication. Her two friends then carried the victim to a couch in the living room. At approximately 6 a.m. on May 23, 1999, the victim awoke on the couch, partially undressed, and found the defendant, who had entered the house while the victim was asleep, performing oral sex on her. The victim screamed and demanded that the defendant stop. When the defendant did so, the victim ran upstairs into her bedroom to awaken her two friends. The defendant subsequently was arrested and, following a jury trial, convicted of sexual assault in the fourth degree. This appeal followed.

I

The defendant first claims that the court’s jury instructions denied him his due process rights to a fair trial and a trial by jury. He claims that his due process rights were denied because the court’s charge to the jury “negated the jury’s consideration of a disputed underlying fact and misled the jury to find for the state on a disputed ultimate fact.” We disagree.

The following facts are relevant to our resolution of the defendant’s claim. The defendant was charged with [34]*34sexual assault in the first degree, sexual assault in the third degree and sexual assault in the fourth degree. In its charge to the jury on the count of sexual assault in the first degree, the court stated in relevant part: “The defendant’s conduct while [the victim] was asleep cannot be considered by you as the use of force. Now, you have heard [the victim’s] testimony as to what she claims occurred between her and the defendant when she awoke on the morning of May 23, 1999. Therefore, in order for the defendant to be found guilty of sexual assault in the first degree . . . the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was some interval of time when [the victim] was awake and that the defendant was performing oral sex upon her through the use of force, that interval of time must be something more than trivial or instantaneous. In other words, if you find that the defendant stopped performing oral sex on [the victim] immediately or virtually immediately upon her awakening, then he cannot be found guilty of sexual assault in the first degree . . . .”

In its charge to the jury on the count of sexual assault in the third degree, the court stated in relevant part: “Again, as I have instructed you as to the [count of sexual assault in the first degree], any conduct on the part of the defendant which took place while [the victim] was asleep cannot be considered as involving the use of force.” In its charge to the jury on the count of sexual assault in the fourth degree, the court stated in relevant part: “As sexual assault in the fourth degree does not require proof of the use of force, you may consider what you find to be the defendant’s conduct to have been while [the victim] was asleep in deciding whether sexual contact took place without her consent.”

The defendant claims that the court’s instructions took from the jury’s consideration whether the victim was asleep or awake when he removed her clothing [35]*35and began performing oral sex on her. The defendant did not object to the court’s charge at trial and now asks us to review his claim under State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 239-40, 567 A.2d 823 (1989),3 or the plain error doctrine. Practice Book § 60-5.4

We will review the defendant’s claim under Golding because the record is adequate to do so, and the defendant has alleged a claim of constitutional magnitude by asserting that the court’s instructions deprived him of his due process right to a fair trial. We conclude, however, that the defendant was not deprived of a fair trial and, therefore, that his claim fails under the third prong of Golding.

In considering the defendant’s claim, “we must adhere to the well settled rule that a charge to the jury is to be considered in its entirety, read as a whole, and judged by its total effect rather than by its individual component parts. . . . [T]he test of a court’s charge is not whether it is as accurate upon legal principles as the opinions of a court of last resort but whether it fairly presents the case to the jury in such a way that injustice is not done to either party under the established rules of law. ... As long as [the instructions] [36]*36are correct in law, adapted to the issues and sufficient for the guidance of the jury . . . we will not view the instructions as improper.” (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Betances, 265 Conn. 493, 509-10, 828 A.2d 1248 (2003).

The defendant argues that the instruction was improper because the court “in effect, told the jury that they should decide [the issue] in accordance with [a party’s] claims.” Ladd v. Burdge, 132 Conn. 296, 299, 43 A.2d 752 (1945).

It was undisputed at the trial that the victim was asleep during the early morning hours of May 23, 1999. Both the defendant and the victim testified that she was asleep when the defendant entered her house and found her on the couch. The factual dispute involves when the victim was awakened. The victim testified that she was awakened while the defendant was sexually assaulting her. The defendant testified that the victim awoke when he laid down next to her on the couch and that the sexual contact thereafter was consensual.

The defendant was charged with sexual assault in the first, third and fourth degrees. To convict a defendant of either sexual assault in the first or third degree, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the sexual contact was compelled by the use of force. The actions of the defendant while the victim was asleep could not be said to have been accomplished by the use of force. See State v. Hufford, 205 Conn. 386, 393, 533 A.2d 866 (1987). Accordingly, the court properly instructed the jury as to the charges of sexual assault in the first and third degree that the actions of the defendant while the victim “was asleep cannot be considered by you as the use of force. ...”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
851 A.2d 1198, 84 Conn. App. 31, 2004 Conn. App. LEXIS 314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mckiernan-connappct-2004.