State v. Waters

214 Conn. App. 294
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedAugust 2, 2022
DocketAC44342
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 214 Conn. App. 294 (State v. Waters) 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. Waters, 214 Conn. App. 294 (Colo. Ct. App. 2022).

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. RODNEY WATERS (AC 44342) Prescott, Alexander and Clark, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crime of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, and, under a part B information, on a plea of guilty, of being a second time offender pursuant to statute (§ 14-227a (g) (2)), the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant had attempted to make a U-turn when the car he was driving twice struck a car being driven by A. The defendant drove away from the accident scene and went home, where he claimed to have consumed a significant amount of alcohol and smoked a ‘‘spliff.’’ When the defendant reappeared at the scene on foot about twenty minutes later, A identified him as the driver of the other car. Police officers noticed that he was acting aggressively, slurring his speech and moving unsteadily. The defendant thereafter failed three sobriety tests the police administered to him and was taken to the police station where he was questioned after being advised of his rights pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436). The defendant was charged under subdivision (1) of § 14- 227a (a), the behavioral subdivision, pursuant to which blood alcohol levels generally are excluded from evidence without a defendant’s con- sent, in accordance with § 14-227a (c). The defendant testified on his own behalf, including testifying that he had not begun to consume alcohol until after he returned home after the incident with A. The state offered as rebuttal evidence the testimony of its expert witness, L, a forensic toxicologist. L testified in response to a set of hypothetical facts about the amount of time it typically takes for alcohol to have observable effects on an individual’s motor functions and typical behav- ior associated with certain blood alcohol levels. The court overruled the defendant’s objection to L’s testimony. On appeal, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that L’s testimony was tantamount to testimony about the defendant’s blood alcohol content and, thus, violated the prohibition of such testimony under § 14-227a (c) in a prosecution under the behav- ioral subdivision. Held: 1. The evidence was sufficient to support the defendant’s conviction of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor: the defendant’s reckless driving, the fact that he drove away from the accident scene, and his slurred speech and belligerent behavior toward the police when he returned to the scene permitted the jury reasonably to infer that he was intoxicated when his car struck A’s car; moreover, the defendant admitted that he had been driving, he was substantially unable to follow the police officers’ instructions when he failed the sobriety tests, and his refusal to take a breath analysis or urine test at the police station permitted an inference that a test would have revealed that he had an elevated blood alcohol content; further- more, the jury reasonably could have inferred that the defendant’s intoxi- cation when he reappeared at the accident scene was not reasonably attributable to his drinking when he arrived home after leaving the scene, which was supported by L’s testimony, and, although the defen- dant claimed that A’s testimony was suspect and that the jury was obligated to credit his testimony that he consumed a significant amount of alcohol when he returned home, it was within the jury’s province to determine whose testimony to credit. 2. The defendant could not prevail under State v. Golding (213 Conn. 233) or the plain error doctrine on his unpreserved claim that the trial court improperly permitted L to testify, in violation of § 14-227a (c), about the likely blood alcohol content of a person who was slurring his speech: a. Because the defendant objected to L’s testimony on the ground that it was irrelevant and that L could not provide any definite conclusions about the defendant’s blood alcohol content, the defendant’s claim on appeal was unpreserved, as he did not cite to § 14-227a (c) or otherwise inform the trial court that the admission of L’s testimony without the defendant’s consent would violate § 14-227a (c). b. The defendant’s claim that he was denied his right to due process as a result of L’s testimony was unavailing; the defendant failed to demon- strate that the testimony was so crucial, critical and highly significant that he was denied a fair trial, as his claim did not implicate anything more than an evidentiary or statutory claim and, thus, could not be reviewed because it was not constitutional in nature, as required by Gold- ing. c. Although the state violated the spirit if not the letter of § 14-227a (c) by seeking to admit opinion testimony in a behavioral case under § 14- 227a (a) (1) that implicitly related to the defendant’s blood alcohol content, the defendant nevertheless failed to demonstrate the existence of plain error. 3. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the defen- dant failed to establish a proper foundation to cross-examine L about whether other substances could have affected the rate at which an individual can become visibly intoxicated from alcohol: although the defendant had the opportunity to lay a factual foundation as to what substances he ingested, he did not define what a spliff was or what substances it contained, and, without that evidentiary foundation, any opinion by L regarding the effect of other substances in combination with alcohol on the rate of intoxication lacked relevance; accordingly, the court’s decision to preclude L’s testimony on that basis did not violate the defendant’s sixth amendment right to confrontation. 4. The record was inadequate to review the defendant’s claim that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress statements he made at the accident scene and at the police station, as he failed to seek a proper memorandum of decision from the court addressing all of the arguments he raised in his motion or to seek an articulation of the court’s decision, which was made without having conducted an evidentiary hearing prior to ruling on the motion. Argued April 11—officially released August 2, 2022

Procedural History

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Related

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
214 Conn. App. 294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-waters-connappct-2022.