Crenshaw v. Comm'r of Corr.

• Docket Number: AC 44915
• Decision Date: 13 September 2022
• Citation: 215 Conn.App. 207,281 A.3d 546
• Parties: Darryl CRENSHAW v. COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals

215 Conn.App. 207

281 A.3d 546

Darryl CRENSHAW

v.COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION

AC 44915

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 23, 2022

Officially Released September 13, 2022

David R. Kritzman, Manchester, for the appellant(petitioner).

Alessandra M. Santacroce, certified legal intern, with whom were Michele C. Lukban, senior assistant state's attorney, and, on the brief, Sharmese L. Walcott, state's attorney, and Angela R. Macchiarulo, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee(respondent).

Prescott, Elgo and Seeley, Js.

SEELEY, J.

The petitioner, Darryl Crenshaw, appeals following the denial of his petition for certification to appeal from the judgment of the habeas court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.On appeal, the petitioner claims that the court(1) abused its discretion in denying his petition for certification to appeal, and (2) improperly concluded that he failed to establish that his trial counsel's performance was constitutionally deficient.We disagree and, accordingly, dismiss the appeal.

The following facts and procedural history, as set forth by our Supreme Court in the petitioner's direct appeal from his conviction or found by the habeas court, are relevant to our resolution of this appeal."In June or July, 2008, the victim began dating the [petitioner]. ...On August 7, 2008, at approximately 5:15 p.m., the victim arrived at the house of Shavonne Coachman, a friend ... [and] ... they drove together to Supreme Clientele, a beauty salon (salon) ....Shortly thereafter, the [petitioner] arrived at the salon, and the victim went outside.A patron of the salon, Timothy Freeman, who was sitting in his car in the parking lot, saw the [petitioner] and the victim flail their arms as they argued. ...After the victim entered the [petitioner's] vehicle, the [petitioner] punched her in the face and proceeded to drive away.Freeman described the incident as a sucker [punch] ....As the [petitioner] drove away, he punched the victim in the face a second time.By the time Coachman ran to the front door of the salon, the [petitioner] and victim were gone. ...The victim never came back [to the salon].

"At around 6 or 7 p.m. that evening, the [petitioner and the victim] went to the apartment of Eruverto Flores, [the boyfriend of Elisa Astacio, the victim's friend and coworker] ....The victim had a blood clot in her eye, the inside of her left eye was red and bloodshot, and the area under her eye was swollen.Flores testified that it was obvious that the [petitioner] had hit the victim. ...Flores testified that the victim was pretty much sitting [in the apartment] with her head down ... not really interacting with anybody, just sitting there.She did not participate in the conversation.About fifteen or twenty minutes later, the [petitioner] and the victim left together. ...

"Between 2 and 3 a.m. on August 8, 2008, the [petitioner's] next door neighbor, Guy Maynard, saw the [petitioner] pull up in his vehicle to the front of the [petitioner's] residence ....Maynard testified that, after the car stopped and the lights went off, the [petitioner] got out and ... walked around the front of the car to the [passenger] side, where he opened the door and picked up somebody out of the front seat of the car.The [petitioner] cradled the individual like you would hold a child, with both arms underneath, and [c]arried [her toward] the front of the house.Maynard could tell that the person being carried was slight and African-American, and he believed the person was probably a female. ...The [petitioner] carried the person into his apartment.After some time had passed, Maynard saw the flickering of lights from a television in the [petitioner's] apartment.Maynard did not hear any screaming or arguing. ...

"Later, during the early morning hours of August 8, Astacio received a call from the [petitioner] after she arrived at work.The [petitioner] informed Astacio that he had fucked up and that he and the victim had gotten into an argument during which he slapped her ....[T]he [petitioner] said that the victim could not come to work that day and asked her to make up an excuse for the victim. ...After this conversation ... Coachman told Astacio what had occurred at the salon.Coachman then called the victim's parents, who reported to the police that the victim had been kidnapped.

"At approximately 9 or 10 a.m. that same day, the [petitioner] met [Teosha Sease, a woman he had planned a date with for that day] and brought her to Six Flags [New England amusement park in Agawam, Massachusetts].At one point while they were at Six Flags, the [petitioner] became upset and exclaimed that he saw [the victim's] face and she wasn't breathing.When Sease asked the [petitioner] what he was talking about, he stated that he's not a murder[er]; he's a good person ....The [petitioner] and Sease remained at [Six Flags] until 10 or 10:30 p.m., when Torchy Colvin, an acquaintance of the [petitioner], came to pick them up. ...The [petitioner] told Colvin and Sease that they could take any of his possessions from his house because he was going south to live with family members. ...

"On August 10, 2008, the police executed a search warrant for the [petitioner's] residence.They discovered the victim's body in one of the bedrooms.Bloodlike stains were found on a laundry basket in the bedroom, a bath towel and several articles of clothing, including on a pair of denim shorts.One of the victim's fake nail[s] was missing, and a fingernail was broken.Subsequent forensic analysis revealed that the [petitioner's] blood was found under the victim's fingernails ....In addition, the victim's blood was found in the front passenger side of the [petitioner's] vehicle.

"An autopsy revealed that the victim had suffered a variety of injuries, including trauma to the head, scalp, arms, left eye and abdomen, indicative of direct injuries to those areas.The victim also had abrasions on her neck, consistent with fingernail marks, and evidence of petechial hemorrhaging in the membranes of her eyes and gums.[Harold Wayne Carver II, the] chief medical examiner concluded that the victim had been strangled and also had suffered blunt force trauma to her head and neck.He also concluded that the victim was alive when these injuries were inflicted. ...

"The police ultimately found the [petitioner] living under an alias in Mexico.After the [petitioner] was extradited to the United States from Mexico, he provided a sworn statement in which he described the circumstances leading up to the victim's death.He stated that the victim had made him jealous and that he pushed her during an argument.He stated that he slapped the victim while they were lying on his bed.When the victim said please, [n]o, he said: [Y]ou got a man at home to take care of you, why are you runnin[g] around.He stated that he grabbed her by the neck and choked her.[The petitioner stated that he] choked and slapped her every time [he] got mad.[He] would choke her hard [and] then stop.[He] would get angry again and continue to choke her.He then said that the victim got tired and went to bed, and that he slept on the couch.The next morning, the victim would not wake up, but the [petitioner] felt her pulse and thought she was alive.The [petitioner] explained that he then went to Six Flags, and, when he returned, the victim was barely breathing.The [petitioner] said that he propped her head up and laid her down in the bed, [but that]she wasn't breathing.He then took off her clothes and tucked her into bed, just hoping she would wake up.He believed that the victim had died from suffocation.Although it is uncontested that the [petitioner caused] the victim's death, the [petitioner] claimed that the victim's death was accidental."(Footnotes omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)State v. Crenshaw , 313 Conn. 69, 72–79, 95 A.3d 1113(2014).

The habeas court in its memorandum of decision denying the petition noted: "The record reveals that ... Carver testified at the petitioner's criminal trial ... that he could not say which injury [the strangulation or a head injury ] caused [the victim's] death, and that either of the two injuries individually could have been the cause.He also testified that a person with the [victim's] head injury may or may not immediately lose consciousness and could survive two to ten hours between the infliction of lethal head trauma and death. ...Carver set forth three possible scenarios following the infliction of the [victim's] head trauma, if it was the head trauma that caused her death: (1) the [victim] did not immediately lose consciousness but lost consciousness later; (2) the [victim] lost consciousness, regained consciousness and lapsed back into unconsciousness as the swelling and blood accumulation accrued; or (3) the [victim] became unconscious immediately and did not wake up. ...Carver could not testify as to which of the scenarios occurred in this case.Carver also testified that a person with the [victim's] strangulation injury could survive."At no point was Carver asked whether he believed the two punches inflicted by the petitioner at the salon parking lot were the definitive cause of the head injuries.

The petitioner was charged with murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a (a), assault in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-61 (a)(1), and two counts of kidnapping in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-94 (a).On October 6, 2010, following a jury trial, the petitioner was convicted on all counts.On direct appeal, our Supreme Court reversed the trial court's judgment as to one of the two kidnapping convictions and remanded the case for resentencing.SeeState v. Crenshaw , supra, 313 Conn. at 72, 98–99, 95 A.3d 1113.On remand, the trial court vacated the sentence on one of the two kidnapping counts, rendered judgment of acquittal on that count and imposed a...