State v. McLaurin

216 Conn. App. 449
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedNovember 8, 2022
DocketAC44523
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 216 Conn. App. 449 (State v. McLaurin) 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. McLaurin, 216 Conn. App. 449 (Colo. Ct. App. 2022).

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. GREGORY E. MCLAURIN (AC 44523) Alvord, Seeley and DiPentima, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted of several crimes in connection with his role in the robbery of a restaurant, the defendant appealed to this court, claiming that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress evidence of his identification by B, an employee of the restaurant, during a one-on- one showup procedure arranged by the police. The defendant and an accomplice, F, had forced the restaurant’s employees at gunpoint to give them money from the restaurant’s safe and cash registers before fleeing on foot across a heavily trafficked road. Within ten minutes after receiving the call regarding the armed robbery, the police apprehended F and detained him in the parking lot of a car dealership about 800 feet from the crime scene, where they had set up a staging area. While the police continued to search for the defendant, an officer drove B from the restaurant to the car dealership, which was well lighted, for a one- on-one showup identification during which she promptly identified F as one of the robbers. After the police apprehended the defendant a short time later, they drove B from the restaurant back to the staging area where, without hesitation, she identified the defendant less than ninety minutes after the robbery. Held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence of B’s identification of him, as the one-on-one showup identification procedure the police conducted was not unnecessarily suggestive in light of the exigencies of the situation: the police, who had found a gun in the restaurant, had no way of knowing whether other weapons were involved in the robbery, it was reasonable for the police to believe that the suspects remained armed and dangerous, which justified the need to act quickly, and the officers’ belief that the safety of the public was at risk was confirmed when they apprehended F with an eight to nine inch knife on his person while the defendant was still at large; moreover, the showup identification was justified by the need to quickly confirm whether the defendant was the second perpetrator or whether the police needed to continue their search, and, even though there did not appear to be a risk that B would later become unavailable, the immediacy of her identification of the defendant ensured that she viewed him while her recollection was still fresh, and it was particularly important because the defendant wore a mask during the robbery and B had been able to see only his clothing, eyes, mouth and portions of his skin; furthermore, the police did not, as the defendant contended, conduct the showup in a suggestive place or stage it in a suggestive manner by returning B to the parking lot where she had identified F about thirty minutes earlier but, rather, took significant steps to minimize the inherent sugges- tiveness of a showup identification by transporting B to a neutral loca- tion, the car dealership, where the defendant was seated in an ambu- lance, rather than in a police car, during the identification procedure, the police did not indicate to B that the person she would be viewing was the person responsible for the crime, and the fact that the defendant was handcuffed during the showup did not render the identification procedure unnecessarily suggestive. Argued September 15—officially released November 8, 2022

Procedural History

Substitute information charging the defendant with four counts of the crime of unlawful restraint in the first degree and with one count each of the crimes of robbery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit rob- bery in the first degree, criminal possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit, larceny in the fourth degree and conspiracy to commit larceny in the fourth degree, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Ansonia-Milford, where the court, Brown, J., denied the defendant’s motion to suppress certain evidence; thereafter, the case was tried to the jury before Brown, J.; verdict and judgment of guilty of four counts of unlawful restraint in the first degree, and of robbery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit rob- bery in the first degree, criminal possession of a firearm, carrying a pistol without a permit and conspiracy to commit larceny in the fourth degree; subsequently, the court, Dennis, J., rendered judgment revoking the defendant’s probation, and the defendant appealed to this court. Affirmed. Daniel J. Krisch, assigned counsel, for the appellant (defendant). Nathan J. Buchok, deputy assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, was Margaret E. Kelley, state’s attorney, for the appellee (state). Opinion

ALVORD, J. The defendant, Gregory E. McLaurin, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of robbery in the first degree with a deadly weapon in violation of General Statutes § 53a-134 (a) (2), conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree with a deadly weapon in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-48 and 53a-134 (a) (2), criminal possession of a firearm in violation of General Statutes § 53a-217, carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of General Statutes § 29-35 (a), four counts of unlawful restraint in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a- 95, and conspiracy to commit larceny in the fourth degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-48 and 53a-125. On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress a one- on-one showup identification. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. The following facts, which the jury reasonably could have found, and procedural history are relevant to this appeal. On January 19, 2018, at approximately 8:30 p.m., the defendant and another individual, Royshon Fergu- son, entered a Smashburger restaurant on Boston Post Road in Milford. Both men were wearing ski masks, but their eyes, mouths, and the skin around their eyes and mouths were visible. The defendant was carrying a silver-colored, semiautomatic gun in his hand. There were three employees working at the restau- rant that night. Jada Brinkley and Jamal McNeil were working in the front of the restaurant, and Casey Deloma, the shift lead, was in the back room, which was brightly lit and contained a small safe. There were four customers dining in the front of the restaurant. When the defendant and Ferguson entered Smash- burger, two of the customers attempted to flee.

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Related

State v. McLaurin (Dissent)
Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2025
State v. McLaurin
352 Conn. 500 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2025)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
216 Conn. App. 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-mclaurin-connappct-2022.