State v. Walsh

789 A.2d 1031, 67 Conn. App. 776, 2002 Conn. App. LEXIS 62
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJanuary 29, 2002
DocketAC 21577
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 789 A.2d 1031 (State v. Walsh) 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. Walsh, 789 A.2d 1031, 67 Conn. App. 776, 2002 Conn. App. LEXIS 62 (Colo. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

Opinion

DUPONT, J.

The defendant, Patrick Walsh, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a juiy trial, of one count of murder in violation of General [778]*778Statutes § 53a-54a.1 The defendant claims that the trial court improperly (1) denied him his right to a fair trial by requiring him to submit to an offer of proof before he testified, (2) deprived him of his sixth amendment right to confront witnesses by misapplying the rule against evidence of third party culpability, (3) deprived him of his right to confront a witness concerning a prior bad act and (4) denied him his right to a fair trial by giving a supplemental reasonable doubt instruction to the jury. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On the evening of May 24, 1995, the victim, Cheri Newman, and her friend, Nicole Bolduc, went to a bar called the Come Back Lounge in Bristol. The victim and Bolduc met the defendant and his brother, James Walsh. Around 1 a.m., the victim drove her own car with the defendant and Bolduc as passengers to the Catholic War Veterans’ Club in New Britain. James Walsh drove the defendant’s truck to the Catholic War Veterans’ Club to meet them. Shortly after arriving at that club, Bolduc wanted to leave. Bolduc made the defendant promise that the victim would get home safely that evening and then left. Bolduc drove the victim’s car and followed the defendant’s truck to the highway to find the proper route to her home. The defendant and the victim returned to the Catholic War Veterans’ Club and stayed until about 4:30 a.m. The defendant then drove the victim in his truck to the defendant’s tattoo parlor, Skin Dance in New Britain. While at the tattoo parlor, the victim was stabbed eight times in the back of the head and neck, and was struck in the back of the head with a ball peen hammer. One of the wounds penetrated the victim’s spinal column, causing instant paralysis and death.

[779]*779Later in the morning of May 25, 1995, the defendant called James Walsh and told him to come to the tattoo parlor because there had been an emergency. The defendant sounded frantic and distressed, and called James Walsh several times before the latter agreed to go to the tattoo parlor. When James Walsh arrived at the tattoo parlor, he found the door locked and the curtains drawn closed. The defendant let James Walsh into the tattoo parlor and told him that he had stabbed the victim and killed her. The defendant told James Walsh that the stabbing began in the back room of the tattoo parlor when the victim tried to flee the shop. The defendant overtook the victim toward the front of the shop, hit her with a ball peen hammer and then stabbed her again. The defendant also told James Walsh that he had cut his right pinkie finger during the struggle with the victim when the handle of the knife he used broke off. James Walsh also noticed a bloody napkin on the defendant’s pinkie finger that day. The defendant asked James Walsh to look for the knife handle and to clean up a large bloodstain in the waiting room of the tattoo parlor. The defendant told James Walsh that he put the victim’s body in a wooden box and that the box was placed in a large plastic trash bag with duct tape.

While the defendant and James Walsh were cleaning the shop, the defendant’s employees, Steven Carp and Christopher Rinaldini, came to the tattoo parlor and were turned away by the defendant, who told them to come back later. When they returned, each was asked to assist in cleaning the shop. While cleaning, Carp noticed droplets of blood in a quantity greater than the amount associated with the process of tattooing. The defendant, James Walsh and Carp placed the wooden box in the defendant’s truck.

The defendant also called his live-in girlfriend, Kelly Dunn. The defendant was upset, and he asked Dunn to bring him a clean pair of jeans and the financial records [780]*780for the shop. When Dunn arrived at the tattoo parlor, the defendant was wearing no shirt, smelled of alcohol and had a bloody Band-Aid on his pinkie finger. The defendant seemed agitated and told Dunn to get inside the shop and assist in cleaning. When Dunn realized that there was a body in the truck, the defendant told Dunn not to open her mouth or give him a hard time. The defendant told Dunn that there also was room in the truck for her. Dunn assisted in the cleaning of the store. Dunn observed the defendant calling his clients to cancel his appointments for the day. The defendant told his clients that the shop was closed due to pipes bursting. The defendant changed into the jeans that Dunn had brought him, and he gave the soiled jeans that he had worn earlier to Dunn. Dunn noted that there were stains that appeared to be blood on the jeans. The defendant told Dunn to wash those jeans with a lot of bleach. Dunn left the tattoo parlor to pick up the defendant’s children and did not see the defendant until the following day.

Later, on May 25, 1995, the defendant and James Walsh drove the defendant’s truck containing the wooden box with the victim’s body to New Hampshire to bury the body on the property of the defendant’s friend, Garrett Gardner. On the way to Gardner’s property, the defendant and James Walsh stopped at the home of James Patchel, another friend of the defendant, who lived in Massachusetts. The defendant told Patchel that he had killed some guy in his tattoo parlor and that the body was in his truck. Patchel noticed that the defendant had a fresh wound on his hand. The defendant and James Walsh left Patchel’s house with two shovels and a saw.

The defendant and James Walsh proceeded to Gardner’s property, which was vacant. The defendant and James Walsh dug a shallow grave near the border of Gardner’s property and placed the wooden box in the [781]*781grave. They also threw in some of the victim’s personal effects and covered the makeshift grave.

When the defendant returned home, the victim’s friends and family inquired about the victim’s whereabouts. The defendant told them that he had left the victim at the Catholic War Veterans’ Club. The defendant told the victim’s friends and family that they should look for her at various crack houses. When questioned by the police concerning the victim’s whereabouts, the defendant told them that he saw the victim leave the Catholic War Veterans’ Club with two women in a brown car.

When the defendant returned to the home that he shared with Dunn, he told her that he had been in New Hampshire burying the body. When the defendant told the story to Dunn, he described the victim as “he” and implied that it was a man that he had killed. The defendant told Dunn that he had gotten into an argument with the victim at the tattoo parlor and it had turned into a fight. The defendant said that he had seen a steak knife and had stuck it in the back of the head, but the person did not die right away. The fight then continued toward the front of the tattoo parlor. The defendant also told Dunn that when the struggle went toward the front of the tattoo parlor, he had twisted the knife and at that moment, the victim turned to jelly and fell to the floor. The defendant also said that the victim was a small person and that he was surprised that the victim had put up such a good fight.2 He also said that when he twisted the knife, the handle broke off, the blade had stuck in the victim’s head, and he had cut his pinkie finger.

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State v. Walsh
795 A.2d 546 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
789 A.2d 1031, 67 Conn. App. 776, 2002 Conn. App. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-walsh-connappct-2002.