State v. Roberts

CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedApril 2, 2024
DocketAC46906
StatusPublished

This text of State v. Roberts (State v. Roberts) 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. Roberts, (Colo. Ct. App. 2024).

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. BRANDON ROBERTS (AC 46906) Elgo, Moll and Keller, Js.

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been convicted, following a jury trial, of, inter alia, carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of statute ((Rev. to 2017) § 29-35 (a)), appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court denying his motion to dismiss and/or set aside the conviction. Although the defendant had grown up in Bridgeport, he claimed to be a resident of Ohio who was visiting his family in Connecticut when he shot and killed a woman he had been dating. He purchased the pistol he used to commit the murder in Ohio, and he never applied for or obtained a permit to carry the weapon in Connecticut. In his motion to dismiss, the defendant claimed that his conviction should be vacated in light of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen (597 U.S. 1), which was decided the day before his sentencing, because § 29-35 (a) violated his right to bear arms under the second amendment to the United States constitution and subjected him to disparate treatment as a nonresident of Connecticut in violation of the privileges and immunities clause of the United States constitution. The trial court denied the motion, and the defendant appealed, arguing that the conviction violated his second amendment rights because he could not have applied for or obtained a permit under the statute governing the issuance of permits to Connecticut residents, ((Rev. to 2017) § 29-28 (b)), as he was not a bona fide permanent resident of Connecticut, and he could not have applied for or obtained a permit pursuant to § 29-28 (f), as that subsection applied only to nonresidents who had a permit or license to carry a pistol or revolver issued by the authority of another state, and he did not have a permit from Ohio because he was not required to have one in that state. The defendant further argued that his conviction violated his rights under the privileges and immunities clause to the United States constitution because Con- necticut’s permitting process placed an additional burden on nonresi- dents by requiring them to obtain permits in their home states that were not otherwise required prior to obtaining a nonresident permit. Held: 1. It was not necessary for this court to address the merits of the state’s argument that, because the defendant did not apply for, and was never denied, a Connecticut nonresident permit, he lacked standing to chal- lenge the constitutionality of § 29-28 (f), this court having determined, under the first prong of the test set forth in State v. Golding (213 Conn. 233), that the record was inadequate to establish whether § 29-28 (f) even applied to the defendant. 2. The defendant did not distinctly raise in the trial court the second amend- ment claim that he raised on appeal and, therefore, it was unpreserved: in his motion to dismiss, the defendant alleged only that, in light of Bruen, § 29-35 (a) appeared to create an unconstitutional restriction on his right to carry a pistol or a revolver outside of his home; moreover, the motion to dismiss was not predicated on the defendant’s claimed Ohio residency, it did not refer to § 29-28 (f) or reference the process that governed a nonresident’s application for and ability to obtain a permit to carry a pistol or revolver in Connecticut, and it made no mention of Ohio or its permit requirements, and defense counsel was silent on these matters during his argument to the trial court in support of the motion; accordingly, the trial court was not asked to decide, nor did it address, whether, in light of Bruen, § 29-28 (f) violated the second amendment. 3. The defendant could not prevail on either of his unpreserved constitutional claims under Golding because the record was inadequate to establish that his conviction for carrying a pistol without a permit violated his rights under the federal constitution: a. It was not clear whether, at the time of the murder, the defendant had a bona fide permanent residence in Connecticut sufficient for him to have obtained a permit pursuant to § 29-28 (b): when the trial court denied the motion to dismiss, it did not address this claim or make any factual findings regarding the defendant’s residency or his eligibility to apply for and obtain a pistol permit in Connecticut; moreover, contrary to the defendant’s claim, the record that existed arguably supported the conclusion that the defendant had plans to remain in Connecticut with some sense of permanency and, accordingly, belied the conclusion that he could not have applied for and obtained a Connecticut resident permit pursuant to § 29-28 (b); furthermore, there was no evidence in the record to explain how applications for permits were evaluated or what type of information was needed to satisfy any of the requirements under § 29- 28 (b) or (f), as defense counsel did not cross-examine any of the state’s witnesses who were familiar with the permitting process in Connecticut nor did he call any witnesses or submit any documentary evidence to address and explain the permitting process during the hearing on the motion to dismiss; accordingly, even if this court, as a reviewing court, could determine whether the defendant had a bona fide permanent resi- dence in Connecticut at the time of the murder, there was no framework within which to assess the applicable evidence. b. It was unclear whether § 29-28 (f) was implicated in this case and, therefore, whether the defendant was required to undertake what he described as the additional burden of obtaining a permit in Ohio prior to applying for a permit in Connecticut: contrary to the defendant’s claim, even assuming that he was a resident of Ohio at the time of the murder, there was no evidence that he was not required to have a permit to carry his guns in that state, as a permit was required in Ohio for concealed carry and there was a dearth of evidence with respect to the manner in which the defendant carried his guns while in that state. Argued November 15, 2023—officially released April 2, 2024

Procedural History

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Bluebook (online)
State v. Roberts, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-roberts-connappct-2024.