State v. Roy

• Decision Date: 26 April 1977
• Citation: 376 A.2d 391,173 Conn. 35
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Michael R. ROY.

Page 391

376 A.2d 391

173 Conn. 35

STATE of Connecticut v. Michael R. ROY.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued March 1, 1977.

Decided April 26, 1977.

Jerrold H. Barnett, Public Defender, with whom were Clement F. Naples and Richard Emanuel, Asst. Public Defenders, and with whom on the brief, was James D. Cosgrove, Chief Public Defender, for appellant (defendant).

Richard F. Jacobson, Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, were Donald A. Browne, State's Atty., and Eugene J. Callahan and Domenick J. Galluzzo, Asst. State's Attys., for appellee (state).

Before HOUSE, C. J., and LOISELLE, BOGDANSKI, LONGO and BARBER, JJ.

BARBER, Associate Justice.

On a trial to a jury, the defendant was found guilty of violating § 53a-171(b) of the General Statutes in that on September 27, 1974, he escaped from custody while charged with the felony of burglary in the third degree. The court rendered judgment accordingly and sentenced the defendant to a prison term, to run concurrently with another sentence being served by the defendant. The issues raised by the defendant on his appeal from the judgment involve the court's instructions to the jury and certain rulings on evidence made in the course of the trial.

The evidence printed in the parties' briefs pursuant to §§ 631A and 632A of the Practice Book would permit the jury to find the following facts: ¹ On September 23, 1974, a mittimus was issued by the Circuit Court in the third circuit at Danbury directing that the defendant be confined at the Connecticut correctional center, Bridgeport, in lieu of $1500 bail and that he be brought before the court on September 27, 1974. The charges on which the defendant was confined were burglary in the third degree and attempted larceny in the second degree. The burglary of which the defendant was accused occurred in Newtown on September 22, 1974. Detective Owen Carney of the Newtown police department was directed by his supervisor to transport the defendant from the correctional center to the court for appearance on September 27, 1974. When they arrived at approximately 11:30 a. m., Detective Carney placed the defendant in the lockup which was located in the courtroom. An accompanying Newtown officer delivered a paper from the correctional center to the clerk of the court showing the number of days that the defendant had been incarcerated. Just before noon, Detective Carney removed the defendant from the lockup so that he could speak with the public defender. To remove the defendant, Detective Carney had to obtain the key to the lockup from the court liaison officer, Sergeant Ray Horn of the Danbury police department. Detective Carney returned the defendant to the lockup a few minutes later. At that time, Carney apparently failed to lock the door and when he looked into the lockup between 12:05 and 12:10 p. m., the defendant was not there. The defendant was not present when the clerk called his case, and it was ascertained that he was not on the courthouse premises. Subsequently, on October 1, 1974, the defendant was apprehended by Detective Carney and others outside his mother's home in Hartford. At the time of the defendant's arrest on the burglary charge in Newtown on September 22, 1974, he had given the police a fictitious name and a fictitious Hartford address.

At the trial, the defendant took the stand in his own defense. He did not dispute that he had, in fact, opened the unlocked door of the courtroom lockup, left the premises of the Circuit Court and fled to a nearby wooded area. He claimed, however, that his acts were not accompanied by the requisite intent or that they resulted from temporary insanity because he had been under the influence of what he termed "a flashback on LSD." The defendant further testified that prior to leaving the lockup on September 27, 1974, he had not used LSD for approximately three years, although he claimed to have experienced several "flashbacks" in the intervening period. In response to the question from his counsel, "Well, when you're under this influence, this flashback . . . do you know what you're doing?" The defendant replied, "No, you don't." The defendant admitted that he remembered speaking with his lawyer, being put back in the lockup, noticing that he was alone and that the cell door was not locked, walking out into the courtroom, and then running into the street and to a wooded area. He testified that at that point he realized what he had done and was even more afraid. He said that he knew the right thing to do was to go back but that instead he went home. The defendant claimed that he had been depressed and frightened upon being put in the lockup and that just before leaving the lockup his hearing and vision became distorted and he felt that he was having an "LSD flashback." No other evidence, of a medical nature or otherwise, was introduced in support of the defendant's claims regarding his mental condition on the day in question. The state produced evidence from which the jury reasonably could have concluded that on September 27, 1974, right before the defendant's departure from the lockup and his claimed "flashback," he appeared physically healthy, did not appear excited or emotionally upset, and had engaged in coherent conversations.

Section 53a-171 of the General Statutes provides in its entirety: "(a) A person is guilty of escape from custody if he escapes from custody. (b) If a person has been arrested for, charged with or convicted of a felony, escapes from such custody is a class C felony, otherwise, escape from custody is a class A misdemeanor." Although much of the trial was devoted to the defendant's claim that he was not in "custody" within the meaning of the statute at the time he left the courthouse, this argument has not been pursued on appeal. The defendant expressly abandons his exception predicated on the claim that the state had failed to establish the authority of a particular public servant to restrain him once he was delivered to the Danbury Circuit Courthouse and concedes that there was a basis for his custody. The defendant does, however, press his objections to the court's instructions to the jury and to certain of its evidentiary rulings. We consider first the charge to the jury.

The defendant argues that the cumulative effect of the jury instructions was tantamount to a directed verdict of guilty and that specific instructions on insanity as a defense and on the element of intent were erroneous. In the course of explaining the nature of circumstantial evidence to the jury, the court reminded them that evidence had been introduced, should they choose to accept it as the truth, that the defendant had been in custody pursuant to court order at the Danbury Circuit Courthouse, was later found to be missing, and there was no evidence in the case of his authorized release or discharge from custody. The court then asked the jury, "What inferences do you draw from that?" The jury were specifically instructed that the court was merely providing them with an illustration of the nature of circumstantial evidence which "may in your own discretion be used if it applies logically and reasonably and leads you to a reasonable inference." They were further cautioned: "Now, I'm not telling you what testimony and what evidence you should consider, and I don't mean by referring to this part of the evidence, that you emphasize this over the rest; but you take it into consideration with the rest of the evidence in the case." "The test to be applied to any part of a charge is whether the charge considered as a whole presents the case to the jury so that no injustice will result." State v. Mullings, 166 Conn. 268, 275, 348 A.2d 645, 649; Siladi v. McNamara, 164 Conn. 510, 515, 325 A.2d 277. It is well established that individual instructions are not to be judged in artificial isolation from the overall charge. State v. Crawford, 172 Conn. 65, 69, 372 A.2d 154; State v. Ralls, 167 Conn. 408, 422, 356 A.2d 147. Having reviewed the charge in its entirety, it does not appear that the court's comments were improper. "The court simply recited some of the evidence from which inferences could be drawn. Moreover . . . the evidence presented by the defendant was accurately summarized. Throughout the charge, the jury's role as the finders of fact was repeatedly emphasized. The court's comments have not been shown to have been unfair or misleading in any way." State v. Schoenbneelt, 171 Conn. 119, 124, 368 A.2d 117, 120. The defendant apparently also objects to the fact that after the second instance when the court reminded the jury that no evidence of lawful discharge or release from custody had been produced, it instructed them that they must find the defendant guilty as a matter of law if they found that he had escaped while charged with burglary in the third degree. Contrary to the defendant's assertion, the court's comments did not amount to a "pronouncement of guilt as a matter of law." The court was merely stating the import of § 53a-171 of the General Statutes. If implicit in its comments was a recognition that the case against the defendant was a substantial one, it was not an abuse of discretion in the light of the facts of this case and the charge read as a whole. Under similar circumstances, where the facts were largely undisputed, where the defendant admitted the acts charged, and where the only substantial issue was one of intent this court held that the trial court did not exceed its wide discretion to comment on the evidence, or lack thereof, when it expressed the opinion that the state had produced evidence of a very strong nature in support of the charge. State v. Searles, 113 Conn. 247, 257-58, 155 A. 213; see State v. Mullings, supra, 166 Conn. 274, 348 A.2d 645. The court charged the jury that the state had the burden of proving the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, that until this was done the defendant was presumed innocent,...