State v. Aviles
| Decision Date | 21 February 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 17055.,17055. |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Jose AVILES. |
James B. Streeto, assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant).
Terence Mariani, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, was John A Connelly, state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
BORDEN, NORCOTT, KATZ, PALMER and VERTEFEUILLE, Js.
The defendant, Jose Aviles, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of murder and criminal possession of a pistol or revolver. The defendant raises two issues on appeal, namely, that the trial court improperly: (1) denied his motion to suppress certain evidence gathered by the police following their warrantless entry into a private residence in which the defendant was staying as an overnight guest; and (2) instructed the jury regarding his affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The defendant was charged with murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a (a),1 and criminal possession of a pistol or revolver in violation of General Statutes § 53a-217c (a)(1).2 Prior to trial, the defendant moved to suppress certain admissions and other oral and written statements he had made to police following their entry into the residence, the gun used in the murder, the shirt and bandana that the defendant allegedly wore at the time of the shooting, and certain clothing found by the police on the day following the murder. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the defendant's motion only as to the bandana, and denied the motion as to the remainder of the evidence. Following the jury's guilty verdict, the court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict and sentenced the defendant to a total effective sentence of fifty years of imprisonment. This appeal followed.
The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On the evening of May 15, 2001, the defendant, who was a nineteen year old drug dealer, was in the area of Grove and Willow Streets in Waterbury, which was the neighborhood where he carried out his drug trade. The victim, Robert Dixon, and his friend, Dyenne Martell, were walking in the same neighborhood looking to purchase narcotics. Following a dispute over a drug sale, the defendant, aided by a number of his associates, attacked the victim. The victim was severely beaten and hit on the head with a rock or cinder block, causing him to bleed profusely and to become disoriented. After the fight, Martell led the victim to a barber shop approximately one block away to care for his injuries and to await an ambulance. As Martell was caring for the victim, the defendant left the scene of the altercation and retrieved from an abandoned house a loaded gun that he used regularly for protection.
Soon thereafter, the defendant, armed with the gun and wearing a yellow bandana over his face, returned to the area of the fight and approached the victim, who was in the presence of Martell and a number of other bystanders. From close range, the defendant fired one shot at the victim that struck him in the chest and ultimately resulted in his death. Subsequently, the defendant ran away from the scene of the shooting to an apartment at 7 Cossett Street in Waterbury, where he admitted to a number of people that he had shot the victim.
At approximately 8 p.m., the police arrived at the scene of the shooting and found the victim seriously injured. The police began to search for the defendant, who was their prime suspect based on identifications made by the bystanders who had witnessed the shooting. The police continued their investigation throughout the night, and early the next morning, they located Darain Romero, who they believed possessed firsthand knowledge about the shooting and the defendant's current whereabouts. At approximately 8 a.m. the following day, Romero gave the police a statement in which he described having witnessed the defendant shoot the victim. Romero also told police that, following the shooting, he had been with the defendant earlier in the morning at an apartment at 7 Cossett Street in Waterbury and overheard the defendant say that he had shot the victim because the victim "was trying to steal weed from him," and that he would not get caught because he "was going to keep hiding out."
The police went to the Cossett Street apartment, where they located the defendant in a bedroom. The police took the defendant to the police department where he was advised of and waived his rights under Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 478-79, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The defendant confessed, both orally and in writing, to having shot the victim, and led the police to the gun that he used to shoot the victim, as well as the shirt he was wearing at the time of the incident, both of which he had hidden in a park near the scene of the shooting. The police also seized the bandana that the defendant had been wearing at the time of the shooting, and the jeans and boots that the defendant was wearing when he was brought to the police station. At approximately 8 p.m. on the day after the shooting, as the defendant was being led into the booking area of the police department, he encountered some young men in the holding area whom he recognized, and they commented about the shooting. Specifically, they asked the defendant why he had shot the victim, to which he responded, "`Yo, I'm glad I shot him.'" Additional facts and procedural history will be set forth as necessary.
The defendant first claims that the trial court improperly denied his motion to suppress all of his statements to the police, both oral and written, as well as the gun and the clothing that the police seized following his apprehension at the Cossett Street apartment. Specifically, the defendant contends that the trial court improperly applied the exigent circumstances exception to the requirement that searches and seizures be accompanied by a warrant; therefore, the warrantless seizure of the defendant in the bedroom of the private residence where he was staying as an overnight guest violated his constitutional rights.3 We disagree.
The following additional procedural history and facts are relevant to our analysis of this claim. The defendant moved to suppress as evidence all of his oral and written statements, the gun, and his items of clothing, on the basis that all of this evidence had been gathered as a result of a warrantless entry into his temporary residence at 7 Cossett Street, as well as his ensuing warrantless arrest, both of which violated his rights under the fourth and fourteenth amendments to the United States constitution, and article first, § 7, of the Connecticut constitution. After a full evidentiary hearing, the trial court denied the motion as to all of the evidence except the yellow bandana.4 In particular, the trial court ruled that the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement applied. The court further ruled that the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bedroom where he was staying as an overnight guest, and that the police had entered the apartment with consent, but that the consent did not extend to the bedroom, "so that the state would have to show exigent circumstances to enter that room." In this regard, the court concluded that the exigent circumstances exception applied to the entry of the police into the bedroom because, "based on the collective knowledge of the police . . . it was reasonable for the police to conclude that if they did not enter that bedroom in an attempt to locate the firearm . . . life and property could have been endangered, and evidence . . . could [have been] destroyed, and, in fact, the defendant could have fled."
The trial court found the following facts in support of its ruling. Martell identified a photograph of the defendant as the shooter and provided the police with a statement describing the altercation between the victim and the defendant. In addition to Martell's identification, there were multiple eyewitness accounts of the shooting from other witnesses, leading the police to focus on the defendant as the prime suspect in the victim's murder. The police proceeded to work throughout the night in an attempt to solve the shooting and to locate the defendant.
The morning after the shooting, the police received information from Romero that the defendant had shot the victim and currently was "hiding out" in the second floor apartment at 7 Cossett Street. In light of this information, Sergeants Gary Pelosi and Eugene Coyle and several other members of the Waterbury police department arrived at the apartment, which belonged to Madelyn Quintana. Pelosi knocked and found the front door to the apartment ajar. A female came to the door, at which point Pelosi identified himself as a police officer, informed her that he was looking for the defendant, and inquired as to whether the defendant was in the apartment. The female opened the door and invited Pelosi into the apartment, where the defendant was in fact staying as an overnight guest. Pelosi entered the apartment and could see the defendant through an open doorway in one of the apartment's bedrooms. Pelosi entered the bedroom, identified himself, and told the defendant that he wanted to talk to him about the shooting that had occurred the previous night. The defendant said "okay," got out of bed, and asked for pants and shoes, which he put on.
The trial court further found that upon being roused from bed by Pelosi, the defendant was not free to leave and that Pelosi thought he might be armed. Pelosi did not handcuff the defendant, but did search the immediate area, including under the bed, for the gun involved in the shooting. Pelosi did not locate the gun under the bed or within...
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