State v. Rivera

628 A.2d 996, 32 Conn. App. 193, 1993 Conn. App. LEXIS 341
Connecticut Appellate Court·Decided July 27, 1993·No. 10974·Published·Cited by 35 cases

Opinion

Heiman, J.

The defendant appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of robbery in the first degree, in violation of General Statutes § 53a-134 (a) (3).1 The trial court rendered an oral judgment of acquittal to an additional charge of assault in [195] the second degree. On appeal, the defendant asserts that the state produced insufficient evidence for the jury to find him guilty of robbery in the first degree and that the trial court was thus obligated to render a judgment of acquittal with respect to that charge. In particular, the defendant posits that the evidence was fatally deficient in identifying him as a participant in the robbery. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On November 22,1990, at about 12:42 a.m., Officer Michael Gosha, a member of the Bridgeport police department, was on patrol on the west side of Bridgeport when he was dispatched to the area of building sixteen in the P.T. Barnum housing project. Upon arrival, he observed a taxicab in the parking lot behind building sixteen, parked approximately 100 feet from Taylor Drive. Upon investigation, Gosha found Roberto Mejias seated in the cab, with his legs outside the vehicle. Mejias appeared to be shaken and his right index finger was bleeding.

Mejias told Gosha that he had been robbed by two individuals. After the victim left by ambulance, Gosha drove around the area looking for the individuals described to him by Mejias, but was unsuccessful.

The parking lot was not lighted that night, but there was light from street lights on Taylor Drive. The lights fixed to the buildings in the area were not working, and, although the area was lighted to some extent from the lights on Taylor Drive, the lighting in the parking lot was poor.

On November 24,1990, two days after the robbery, Officer Daniel Garcia of the Bridgeport police department was dispatched at approximately 3:45 a.m. to transport Mejias. Garcia met Mejias at the cab company office on Main Street in Bridgeport. They went [196] to building sixteen, apartment 102, at the Barnum complex on the basis of Mejias’ statement that he had information that the persons who had perpetrated the robbery on him were at that apartment.

Garcia entered the building and went to apartment 102. He found a husky Hispanic male with a cast on his leg and walking with crutches, who matched the description that had been given to Garcia of one of the persons involved in the robbery. Garcia took that individual, Edwin Lopez, into custody and brought him to the police cruiser, where Mejias identified him as one of the perpetrators of the robbery. Garcia called for additional police assistance and Officer Ruby Crear arrived. Garcia placed Lopez in his police cruiser to take him to police headquarters for booking. Mejias entered the police vehicle operated by Crear. Both vehicles then left the area. The vehicle operated by Garcia was about twenty feet in front of the vehicle operated by Crear.

At about 5 a.m., the two vehicles proceeded to St. Stephens Street and then to Albion Street in the vicinity of the Evergreen Apartments. Garcia observed three males walking in the area of the Evergreen Apartments. He observed that two of the men were African-American and the third was Hispanic. The area was sufficiently illuminated for a person to see a short distance ahead. Daylight was beginning to appear and the street lights as well as the headlights of Garcia’s vehicle lighted the area.

Garcia received a radio transmission from Crear’s vehicle indicating that the victim said the Hispanic male looked like the second perpetrator. Garcia stopped his vehicle, exited it and walked toward the three males. The three entered the grounds of the Evergreen Apartments. Garcia called out “Tito,” a name that he had heard at the Barnum project. The three continued to walk until Garcia again called out “Tito” and pointed [197] his flashlight at them. This time, the Hispanic male turned around. The individual fit the description given by Mejias of a Hispanic male, shorter than Lopez, with a “fade” haircut.

Garcia brought the Hispanic male, the defendant, back to the vicinity of the police vehicle in which Mejias was a passenger. The take down lights2 of the police vehicle were lighted. Garcia brought the defendant to a point about seven feet in front of the police vehicle in which Mejias was seated. Mejias positively identified the defendant as the second individual involved in the robbery of November 22,1990. As soon as Mejias positively identified the defendant, Garcia arrested and charged him with the commission of the offenses.

The only evidentiary issue that the defendant raises with respect to this conviction is that the evidence produced was grossly insufficient to prove his guilt of the offense of robbery in the first degree beyond a reasonable doubt. He posits that the attempted in-court identification by the victim was of such a nature that, as a matter of law, the jury could not reasonably conclude that the state had established beyond a reasonable doubt the identification of the defendant as one of the participants in the robbery of Mejias. We disagree and conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury finding.3

[198] Certain additional facts are necessary for a proper resolution of this issue. At trial, the state called the victim as a witness. The victim could not speak fluent English and required the services of a court interpreter. At times during his testimony, the victim answered questions without waiting for the services of the interpreter.

The victim testified that in the early morning hours at the end of November, 1990, he had been dispatched to 752 East Main Street to pick up a fare. When he arrived at that address, two Hispanic males and a Hispanic female entered his cab. They directed him to take them to the Barnum project, to the area of the parking lot behind building sixteen. The victim testified that one of the men, Edwin Lopez, used crutches. He testified further that Lopez displayed a knife. Subsequently, Lopez placed the knife near the victim’s throat. He also testified that money was removed from his pocket by the other Hispanic male. In stating that the other person had removed the money from his pocket, the victim referred to that other person as Isidro Rivera. The victim also testified that when he attempted to push the knife away from his neck, his finger was cut.

The state’s attorney then asked the victim to look around the courtroom to see if he saw the person who took the money. The victim responded negatively.4 [199] Later in the direct examination, the victim testified that he had identified the defendant as one of the perpetrators when the defendant was brought near the cab at the time of the arrest.5 The victim further testified that he had an opportunity on the evening of the robbery to observe the faces of the perpetrators for about five minutes by the lights in the cab and by the cab’s headlights as the perpetrators walked away.

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State v. Rivera, 628 A.2d 996, 32 Conn. App. 193, 1993 Conn. App. LEXIS 341 (Colo. Ct. App. 1993).

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