State v. Rosa

196 Conn. App. 490
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedMarch 17, 2020
DocketAC42267
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 196 Conn. App. 490 (State v. Rosa) 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. Rosa, 196 Conn. App. 490 (Colo. Ct. App. 2020).

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. TYRONE ROSA (AC 42267) Keller, Elgo and Bright, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of murder, assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a firearm, the defendant appealed, claiming that the state violated his right to due process when it suppressed DNA evidence that was material to his defense, in violation of Brady v. Maryland (373 U.S. 83), and did not disclose it until after the jury returned its verdict. The defendant allegedly shot the victims, J and M, in the automobile in which the three were riding after they had left an after-hours club. M subsequently died from his injuries but J was able to flee after he was shot. After the three men left the after-hours club, the defendant told J to park the automobile on the street so the defendant could exit the automobile to urinate. The defendant testified that, while he was urinating by a nearby fence, an unknown person put a gun to his head and told him not to move, yell or turn around. The defendant further testified that he then heard two loud pop sounds. When he turned around one minute later and saw no one, he went back to the automobile and saw that the driver’s side door was open. The defendant testified that he did not see anyone inside the automobile or on the street and then ran away. A discarded sweatshirt that the police found in the vicinity of the shootings was sent to the state’s scientific laboratory for DNA testing. At the time of trial, DNA from the sweatshirt had not been matched to anyone, including the defendant. Two weeks after the ver- dict, the prosecutor notified defense counsel that a DNA profile from the sweatshirt had matched a DNA sample that had been collected from a convicted felon, O, whom defense counsel later learned was not incarcerated at the time of the shootings. The defendant claimed that the state had acquired the DNA evidence at least two months before his trial began or while his trial was proceeding, and that it would have discredited the testimony of J, the state’s key witness, and bolstered the defense theory that the unknown individual was the shooter. At the defendant’s sentencing proceeding, the trial court denied the defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal. Held that the defendant failed to prove that the DNA match between the sweatshirt and O constituted material evidence within the meaning of Brady, there having been no reasonable basis to conclude that the lack of the DNA evidence of the match at trial undermined its fairness and resulted in a verdict that was not worthy of confidence: it was reasonable to conclude that the sweatshirt could have been left as a result of innocuous activity, rather than by someone involved in the commission of the shootings, as the defendant did not testify that the alleged unknown gunman was wearing a sweatshirt, which was found more than half a block away from the crime scene in an area that was reasonably likely to be traversed by the public, there was no evidence that indicated how long the sweatshirt had been there, that it was present when the police first responded to the crime scene or that it contained gunpowder residue or blood, and, as there was no indication that O was in the vicinity of the crime scene at the time of the shootings or had any connection to the victims, the defendant would not have been able to successfully raise a third party culpability defense; moreover, even though the defendant was aware of the existence of the sweatshirt at the time of trial and that it did not contain his DNA, it was not necessary for defense counsel to know about the DNA match in order to suggest to the jury that the sweatshirt belonged to someone other than the defendant, bolstering his claim that some unknown person committed the shootings; furthermore, the state’s case against the defendant was strong, as it included J’s identification of the defendant as the shooter, evidence that the defendant had a motive to kill M when he learned at the after-hours club that M had admitted to the killing the brother of a close friend of the defendant, the defendant’s testimony about the events was very weak and lacked credibility, and significant consciousness of guilt evidence implicated the defendant, as he had lied to the police when they interviewed him and had sought to have friends dispose of his cell phone and visit an area near the crime scene to see if surveillance cameras were present. Argued October 11, 2019—officially released March 17, 2020

Procedural History

Substitute information charging the defendant with the crimes of murder, assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a firearm, brought to the Supe- rior Court in the judicial district of Hartford and tried to the jury before Baldini, J.; verdict of guilty; there- after, the court denied the defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal and rendered judgment in accor- dance with the verdict, from which the defendant appealed; subsequently, the court, Baldini, J., granted the defendant’s motion for rectification. Affirmed. Daniel J. Krisch, assigned counsel, for the appel- lant (defendant). Nancy L. Chupak, senior assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, state’s attorney, and Robin D. Krawczyk, senior assistant state’s attorney, for the appellee (state). Opinion

KELLER, J. The defendant, Tyrone Rosa, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered following a jury trial, of one count of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a, one count of assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-59 (a) (5) and one count of criminal possession of a firearm in violation of General Statutes § 53a-217 (a) (1). The defendant claims that the state suppressed evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S. Ct. 1194, 10 L. Ed. 2d 215 (1963). Specifically, the defendant asserts that, either before his trial began or while the trial was ongoing, the state, via its agent, the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection’s division of scientific services (division), acquired evidence that the Combined DNA Index Sys- tem (CODIS)1 reported that a DNA profile that was developed from the swabbing of a discarded sweatshirt found in the vicinity of the crime scene matched (CODIS match) a DNA sample collected from a convicted felon, Javier Otero.

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Bluebook (online)
196 Conn. App. 490, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rosa-connappct-2020.