State v. Morel

158 A.3d 848, 172 Conn. App. 202, 2017 WL 1232156, 2017 Conn. App. LEXIS 124
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJanuary 11, 2017
DocketAC 38326
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 158 A.3d 848 (State v. Morel) 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. Morel, 158 A.3d 848, 172 Conn. App. 202, 2017 WL 1232156, 2017 Conn. App. LEXIS 124 (Colo. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

KELLER, J.

*205The defendant, Tomas Morel, appeals from the judgment of conviction rendered by the trial court, following a jury trial, of two counts of larceny in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-122, and one count of conspiracy to commit larceny in *206the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-48 and 53a-122.1 The defendant claims that (1) the evidence did not support the jury's finding with respect to two of the three crimes of which he was convicted and (2) the court improperly permitted the state to present uncharged misconduct evidence. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

On the basis of the evidence presented at trial, the jury reasonably could have found the following facts. During the events underlying this appeal, the defendant was a longtime employee of Dooney and Bourke, a company that designs and manufactures handbags and small leather *852goods, including wallets. Although the company did not provide its employees with written policies and procedures, policies and procedures that governed employee activities were otherwise communicated to employees and, thus, became common knowledge. The defendant was employed as a driver. His duties customarily entailed the transportation of products from the company's manufacturing facility in Norwalk to its distribution center in Orange. At its manufacturing facility, the company manufactured new and sample products, repaired products, and processed products that had been returned by customers.

New products, which left the manufacturing facility daily, were tagged with unique serial numbers. After these products were scanned, they were sealed in boxes containing other new products. A contents label that identified the products in each box was affixed to the outside of each box. Later, skids holding multiple boxes of new products were shrink-wrapped together and, *207with the use of a forklift, moved into the company truck for transport to the distribution center. Upon arrival at the distribution center, new products were inventoried by the use of scanning equipment and then stored. Thus, the company utilized a procedure that enabled personnel at the manufacturing facility to know exactly what new product was leaving the facility, and personnel at the distribution center to know exactly what new product was arriving at the center.

Skids holding boxes that contained returned and repaired products left the manufacturing facility for delivery to the distribution center along with skids holding boxes that contained new products, but this occurred at irregular intervals, usually two or three times per month. At the manufacturing facility, returned and repaired handbags were placed in boxes along with similar products for shipment to the distribution facility. However, unlike the situation with new products, there was no procedure in place by which to inventory each returned and repaired handbag at either the manufacturing facility or the distribution center. Instead, boxes containing these handbags were sealed when full, and the number of handbags in each box was inscribed in marker on the outside of the box. Affixed to each box was a document that included the date, number of products in each box, and the destination for each box. Smaller-sized returned and repaired products were packaged and shipped in a similar manner. Prior to their transport and delivery to the distribution center, boxes containing returned and repaired products were stacked on skids with other boxes containing returned and repaired products. Personnel at the manufacturing facility typically did not notify the distribution center to alert it to incoming skids of returned and repaired products. Basic company policy required that, once loaded on the truck for shipment, boxes were not to be opened during transit.

*208The company manufactured many sample products that were used during "market week" events in New York City four times each year. These products, displayed for store buyers, were transported to New York in what company employees referred to as "coffin boxes" and, later, returned to the manufacturing facility for display. These boxes were smaller than the boxes that were used for new products and those used for returned and repaired products.

The defendant's charges arose from two separate incidents, one that occurred on December 8, 2011, and the other that occurred on October 12, 2012. The December 8, 2011 incident occurred during the company's annual "tent sale," a several-day event that took place in the parking lot of the manufacturing facility beginning on *853December 7, 2011. During the tent sale, the company sold new products, which were delivered to the manufacturing facility from the distribution center, as well as sample products that were selected for sale from products stored at the manufacturing facility. It was well established company policy that sample products, which were priced for sale by store managers who were brought in to work at the manufacturing facility to assist in the tent sale, were always stored in coffin boxes, not the types of boxes used to store new products. Moreover, it was company policy that sample products be transported around the manufacturing facility in coffin boxes so that supervisors could observe the movement of such products and, if necessary, inquire as to why such products were being transported around the facility. A large amount of new products and sample products were stored in the manufacturing facility until such time as they were brought out to the nearby tent for sale to customers.

In the afternoon of December 7, 2011, Arle Cruz, an employee working in the packaging area of the manufacturing facility, observed the defendant and two other *209employees employed in the manufacturing facility, Vincente Morel and Carlos Guillen, stuff three garbage bags with sample handbags and wallets intended for the tent sale that they removed from a skid holding twenty coffin boxes. Each of the garbage bags contained approximately thirty products. The defendant, Morel, and Guillen placed the bags in what company employees referred to as "baby trucker" boxes, a type of box that the company did not utilize to transport sample product, which they transported to Morel's work area, near the loading dock. In an effort to prevent this activity, Cruz positioned the coffin boxes of sample products intended for the tent sale such that they were in view of a company surveillance camera. Morel and Guillen approached Cruz. Morel stated that Cruz was not a supervisor and, while motioning in a threatening manner by moving his hand across his neck, stated that he would cut Cruz' neck. Two hours later, close to 5 p.m., Cruz observed these same baby trucker boxes on the loading dock itself.

The next day, Lourdes C. Lawson, a company employee who worked in the shipping department at the manufacturing facility, observed Morel and Guillen pass by his work station with carts that contained open, untapped, and unlabeled "size 46" boxes of sample handbags.

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Related

State v. Wilson
209 Conn. App. 779 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2022)
State v. Dubuisson
191 A.3d 229 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2018)
State v. Morel
165 A.3d 1252 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
158 A.3d 848, 172 Conn. App. 202, 2017 WL 1232156, 2017 Conn. App. LEXIS 124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-morel-connappct-2017.