State v. Walker

82 A.3d 630, 147 Conn. App. 1, 2013 WL 6224486, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 559
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedDecember 10, 2013
DocketAC 33550
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 82 A.3d 630 (State v. Walker) 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. Walker, 82 A.3d 630, 147 Conn. App. 1, 2013 WL 6224486, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 559 (Colo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion

BEAR, J.

The defendant, James E. Walker, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of one count of conspiracy to commit assault in [3]*3the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-59 (a) (5) and 53a-48. On appeal, the defendant claims: (1) there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction because the evidence rested entirely on the testimony of a jailhouse informant, (2) the court erred in excluding the defendant from a critical stage of the proceeding when trial counsel’s possible conflict of interest was discussed in chambers, and it then failed to conduct an adequate inquiry on the record into the possible conflict before asking the defendant if he had an objection, and (3) the court improperly permitted the state to introduce testimony regarding latent fingerprint evidence despite the loss of such evidence while in police custody. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. Ron Alex James and the defendant were longtime friends. The defendant also knew James’ girlfriend, Jamie Walker. On September 12, 2005, Jamie Walker rented a gray 2005 Ford Focus. She gave the rental company two telephone numbers, one of which was 203-535-6997. That telephone number, however, was registered to Elizabeth Tyson, James’ mother, who informed police that James used a cell phone that was associated with that number, and that this was James’ contact number. On September 20, 2005, at 1:29 a.m., a two minute call was placed from James’ cell phone to 203-535-8869, the number of the telephone that was used by the defendant.

Also on September 20, 2005, just before 2 a.m., Shan-iya Bell was looking out of a second floor window in her apartment on Sherman Parkway in New Haven when she saw two African-American males, approximately five feet, nine inches, or five feet, ten inches, walking toward the parking lot of her building. One of the men was wearing blue shorts and the other was wearing blue pants. She saw one of the men remove a [4]*4silver and black gun from the back of his pants. Bell dialed 911. One of the men then went back up the road to a parked gray Ford Focus, entered the vehicle and moved it forward. Both men then ran across the parking lot of Bell’s building, heading toward Dixwell Avenue. Still on the telephone with 911, Bell heard several gunshots and saw the same two men run back through the parking lot, back to the gray Ford Focus. The men then proceeded to make a U-tum in the vehicle and head south on Sherman Parkway.

In the meantime, Robert Pouncey and his friend, Cha-carra Stevens, were lying on a bed in a first floor apartment, located at 429 Dixwell Avenue, that Pouncey shared with his mother, brother and five year old daughter, when Pouncey heard metal clicking outside of his bedroom window. There then was a series of more than ten gunshots, and both Pouncey and Stevens were hit by several bullets and sustained life-threatening or major injuries. Neither of them saw the shooter or shooters through the window, which had a fan in it. Pouncey’s mother, who was home at the time of the shooting, called the police. On the ground below the window, police found seven shell casings that had been ejected from a semiautomatic weapon. They also found five fired bullets inside the bedroom.

Officer Robert Levy was in his police cruiser when he received a dispatch regarding the shooting, and he learned that Officer George Smith was attempting to stop a vehicle that the police believed may have been involved in the shooting. Levy drove to the intersection of Munson and Crescent Streets, where Smith had pulled over a gray Ford Focus. As the officers approached the vehicle, the vehicle sped off. The officers then engaged in pursuit of the vehicle, but lost sight of it. Other officers also had been called to help with the pursuit of the Ford Focus, when Officer George Baker and Officer Sherie Biros saw a black and red [5]*5baseball cap in the middle of Diamond Street, which later proved to contain, inter alia, James’ DNA. As they stopped to pick up the cap, they saw a gray Ford Focus parked in the driveway of 55 Diamond Street. The car was the same vehicle that Jamie Walker, James’ girlfriend, had rented on September 12,2005. Officers Levy and Smith arrived at the scene and found two cell phones in the Ford Focus, one of which was associated with the number 203-535-6697, James’ number. The owner of 55 Diamond Street did not know to whom the gray Ford Focus belonged, nor had he seen the car in his driveway prior to the police knocking on his door during the early morning hours of September 20, 2005.

The Ford Focus was towed to the police garage and was examined for prints. Some of the prints found on the outside of the vehicle belonged to James; one of the prints lifted from the front passenger side front door belonged to the defendant. The police also conducted an investigation of the area around where the Ford Focus was found. The police discovered a sneaker, which appeared new, in front of a wooden fence, and there were blue fibers on top of the fence, which indicated to police that the suspects had climbed the fence in an attempt to escape. In an area on the other side of the fence, they found a loaded Beretta nine millimeter semiautomatic pistol, which later was determined to be the same pistol that had discharged seven shell casings and some of the bullets found at Pouncey’s home. Police were not successful in obtaining DNA from the Beretta, but the sneaker contained DNA, of which the defendant proved to be a major contributor. The police arrested the defendant.

James Dickerson, an acquaintance of the defendant, who was incarcerated in the same facility as the defendant, told police that the defendant admitted to him his involvement in the shootings on Dixwell Avenue. Dickerson testified at the defendant’s trial that he had [6]*6come forward with this information in the hope of getting favorable consideration on his pending drug charges. He testified that the defendant had told him that he and James had gone to Pouncey’s house in a car belonging to James’ girlfriend in order to seek revenge against Pouncey for having robbed him. He further testified that the defendant had told him that both he and James had fired guns through Pouncey’s bedroom window at Pouncey and his female friend, that they had fled in the car after the shooting and that they had abandoned the car thereafter.

Following the trial, the jury found the defendant guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree. The jury, however, found the defendant not guilty of assault in the first degree, pursuant to § 53a-59 (a) (5), as either an accessory or as a principal. The defendant received a sentence of nineteen years incarceration. This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.

I

The defendant claims that there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction because the evidence against him consisted primarily of the testimony of Dickerson, a jailhouse informant. Relying on State v. Sanchez, 204 Conn. 472, 528 A.2d 373

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
82 A.3d 630, 147 Conn. App. 1, 2013 WL 6224486, 2013 Conn. App. LEXIS 559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-walker-connappct-2013.