State v. White

195 Conn. App. 618
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedFebruary 11, 2020
DocketAC42471
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 195 Conn. App. 618 (State v. White) 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. White, 195 Conn. App. 618 (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. ANDRE D. WHITE (AC 42471) Keller, Prescott and Moll, Js.

Syllabus

Convicted, after a jury trial, of the crimes of home invasion, robbery in the first degree, conspiracy to commit burglary in the first degree and tampering with a witness, the defendant appealed to this court. The defendant’s conviction stemmed from an incident in which he and two other men, D and L, pursuant to their plan to commit a home invasion and robbery, followed the victim to his residence, forced him into the residence at gunpoint and robbed him of various possessions, including his credit and ATM cards, two rifles, a box of shotgun shells, and a vase containing approximately $75 in coins. During their investigation, the police obtained a warrant to search the defendant’s residence and to seize any items that were described in the warrant application and supporting affidavit as either having been removed from the victim’s residence or used or worn by the defendant during the commission of the home invasion. Upon execution of the warrant, the police seized several items, including a box of 20 gauge shotgun shells and a black ski mask. Prior to trial, the defendant filed a motion to suppress any and all evidence that the police seized from his residence. The trial court denied the motion, concluding, inter alia, that the search warrant was supported by probable cause. During the trial, the state called D, who testified in detail about the events leading up to and including the home invasion, and the defendant’s involvement therein. D also testified that he had entered into a plea agreement with the state, pursuant to which he pleaded guilty to the crime of burglary in the first degree and agreed to testify for the state in exchange for a sentence of between seven and nine years of imprisonment. The plea agreement, which was admitted into evidence without objection, expressly provided that the ultimate decision as to the sentence that D received would be decided by the judge who presided over the defendant’s trial, after consideration of the credibility of D’s testimony at trial, as well as other factors. On appeal, the defendant claimed that he was deprived of a fair trial as a result of prosecutorial impropriety and that the court improperly denied his motion to suppress the evidence that was seized pursuant to the search warrant. Held: 1. The defendant could not prevail on his unpreserved claim that prosecu- torial impropriety that occurred during the state’s examination of D and closing argument deprived him of a fair trial: a. Contrary to the defendant’s claim, the prosecutor’s inquiry during his redirect examination of D about D’s reasons for entering into the plea agreement with the state, which elicited testimony from D that the prosecutor had not made an offer until he was satisfied that D was being truthful, was not improper; the prosecutor’s inquiry was based on the evidence and did not suggest that the prosecutor was vouching for D’s credibility on the basis of facts outside of the record. b. The defendant’s claim that the prosecutor improperly vouched for D’s credibility during the state’s rebuttal closing argument was unavail- ing: the prosecutor’s reference to the fact that D’s plea agreement required the presiding judge to make a determination of D’s credibility was based on the evidence and did not suggest to the jury either that the court already had found D to be credible or that the jury was not required to evaluate D’s credibility because the court would do so; moreover, contrary to the defendant’s assertion, certain challenged argu- ments of the prosecutor concerning D and the plea agreement were not an attempt by the prosecutor to inject his credibility into the trial or to ask the jury to trust his professional judgment and integrity when assessing D’s credibility, as the arguments were properly limited to the evidence and the rational inferences to be drawn therefrom; furthermore, the prosecutor did not mischaracterize defense counsel’s arguments that the state had ‘‘bought and sold’’ D’s testimony and that the prosecu- tor was supporting perjury, the prosecutor having properly attempted to refute these challenges to D’s testimony by arguing that because the plea agreement was contingent on D testifying credibly, it did not logi- cally provide him with a motive to be untruthful, and there was no merit to the defendant’s contention that the prosecutor vouched for D by suggesting that, by testifying, he risked being prosecuted for perjury. 2.

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Related

White v. Commissioner of Correction
236 Conn. App. 67 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2025)

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Bluebook (online)
195 Conn. App. 618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-white-connappct-2020.