State v. Moon

CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedAugust 27, 2019
DocketAC42130
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Moon (State v. Moon) 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. Moon, (Colo. Ct. App. 2019).

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. RASHAD MOON (AC 42130) Lavine, Elgo and Pellegrino, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of felony murder, robbery in the first degree, and conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, the defendant appealed. The defendant’s conviction stemmed from an incident in which the defendant and M attempted to rob the victim, F, of two computer tablets he had advertised for sale via an internet posting. Upon meeting the defendant and M to sell the tablets, F was shot while he was sitting in his car near the defendant’s home and, subsequently, died from his injuries. On appeal, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that the trial court erred in providing the jury with a supplemental instruction regarding the use of force element of robbery in response to a question from the jury. Held: 1. The court did not err when it provided the jury with a supplemental instruction in response to its question regarding the use of force element of robbery in the first degree: the defendant’s claim that the court introduced a new theory of liability, namely, accessorial liability, when it added the phrase ‘‘another participant’’ to the instructions on the use of physical force element of robbery in the first degree was unavailing, as the statute (§ 53a-134 [a]) governing robbery in the first degree, which provides that a person may be guilty of robbery in the first degree if he or another participant in the crime uses or threatens the use of a dangerous instrument, provides for both principal and accessorial liabil- ity, and, thus, the court, by adding the phrase ‘‘another participant,’’ tailored the instruction so that it more closely mirrored the statute, and its supplemental instruction was adapted to the state’s theory of the case that the defendant was a participant in the robbery; moreover, the supplemental instruction did not invade the province of the jury or suggest a preferred verdict, as it appropriately clarified an element of an existing charge against the defendant, was a proper statement of the law and used permissive language, which made it clear that the court was not instructing the jury to find that the defendant was a participant in the robbery. 2. The defendant could not prevail on his claim that the court erred when it declined to poll the jurors on his affirmative defense to the felony murder charge, which was based on his claim that the applicable rule of practice (§ 42-31) requires the court to poll jurors on affirmative defenses, as the mandatory language of that provision expressly provides that the rule applies only to the jurors’ verdict: where, as here, the court did not direct the jury to return any verdict other than a general one, the court was required only to poll the jurors concerning whether they found the defendant unanimously guilty or not guilty of the charges against him and not whether they found that he had proved the affirma- tive defense, and because the jury instructions made clear that, to find the defendant guilty of felony murder, the jury had to find, unanimously, that he did not prove the affirmative defense, the clerk, in polling the jurors on felony murder, necessarily polled them on the affirmative defense; moreover, requiring that jurors be polled regarding the affirma- tive defense was analogous to providing the jurors with interrogatories, which was not generally recognized as a part of Connecticut’s crimi- nal procedure. 3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting into evidence two spent shell casings that were found in the defendant’s house two days after the shooting; although the defendant claimed that because there was no connection between the shell casings and the shooting, the casings were impermissible evidence of his criminal propensity, the state introduced evidence connecting the shell casings to the shooting death of the victim, including testimony that the shell casings came from a .22 caliber gun, a statement from a witness that the witness had seen the defendant with a .22 or .25 caliber gun, and testimony that the victim’s wound was consistent with the type of wound created by a bullet fired from a small caliber gun, and the shell casings were relevant to the crime charges because they had a tendency to prove that the defendant owned a firearm and, therefore, had the means to commit a crime involving a small caliber gun. 4. The defendant could not prevail on his unpreserved claim that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree when it omitted the intent element required for the underlying crime of robbery in the first degree by failing to instruct the jury that it had to find that the defendant intended to commit a robbery while he or another participant was armed: because the court provided counsel with a meaningful opportunity to review the jury instructions when it gave the parties a copy of the proposed jury instructions two days prior to instructing the jury, defense counsel did not express any concerns regarding the instructions on conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree and stated that the defendant did not need more time to review the proposed jury instructions, and defense counsel failed to object after the court instructed the jury on conspiracy, the defendant waived his instructional claim; moreover, the defendant’s claim that the court’s instruction on conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree constituted plain error was unavailing, as the court instructed the jury on the intent requirement for conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree when it read from the conspiracy statute and set forth the elements of the crime, and it provided the jury with detailed instructions on the intent element of conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, which made clear that the intent required for the charge was the intent to commit the underlying crime of robbery in the first degree and that the defendant had to intend for a participant in the crime to be armed with a deadly weapon. Argued April 11—officially released August 27, 2019

Procedural History

Information charging the defendant with the crimes of felony murder, robbery in the first degree, and con- spiracy to commit robbery in the first degree, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Hartford, geographical area number fourteen, and tried to the jury before Baldini, J.; verdict and judgment of guilty, from which the defendant appealed. Affirmed. Pamela S. Nagy, assigned counsel, for the appel- lant (defendant). Laurie N.

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Moon, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moon-connappct-2019.