State v. Beavers
| Decision Date | 17 February 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 17778.,17778. |
| Citation | 963 A.2d 956,290 Conn. 386 |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Buddy BEAVERS. |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Annacarina Jacob, senior assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant).
Timothy J. Sugrue, senior assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Scott J. Murphy, state's attorney, and Brian Preleski, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
NORCOTT, KATZ, VERTEFEUILLE, ZARELLA and SCHALLER, Js.
The principal issue in this appeal is whether, in an arson murder trial, testimony by the defendant's former wife about his prior uncharged misconduct, including his burning of their house trailer for insurance money, his statement to her that he previously had committed arson for hire, and his threat to burn down their home, was admissible under § 4-5(b) of the Connecticut Code of Evidence.1 The defendant Buddy Beavers, appeals directly to this court2 from the judgment of guilty, rendered after a jury trial, of arson murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54d,3 attempted murder in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-54a and 53a-49,4 and arson in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-111.5 On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court improperly admitted his former wife's testimony in violation of: (1) the rule against the admission of propensity evidence; Conn.Code Evid. § 4-5; and (2) the marital communications privilege. The defendant also claims that the trial court improperly admitted the state arson investigator's opinion testimony concerning the ultimate issue in this case, namely, whether the fire was set intentionally, in violation of § 7-3(a) of the Connecticut Code of Evidence.6 We disagree with these claims, and, accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The record reveals the following relevant facts, which the jury reasonably could have found, and procedural history. On December 9, 1998, the defendant resided in a town house at 95 Shawn Drive in Bristol with Wilma Jean Beavers, his mother and the victim in this case, Lee Atkins, the victim's boyfriend, and James Beavers (James), the defendant's fifteen year old son. At approximately 4 o'clock in the morning on that date, the defendant ran to the adjacent town house of Doreen DeGenova, and asked her to call the fire department because there was a fire and he thought that Atkins was still in the house. Brian Gould, the first police officer to arrive on the scene, observed the town house engulfed in flames, and was alerted by the gathering crowd that a person, subsequently identified as the victim, was lying on the floor just inside the front door. The intense heat prevented Gould and other police officers from entering the building to rescue the victim prior to the arrival of the fire department shortly thereafter. Gould spoke with the defendant, who related that he, the victim and James had run out of the building, but that the victim had reentered the building in an attempt to assist Atkins, who had been having great difficulty walking because he was recovering from a recent hip replacement surgery.7 It turned out, however, that James already had assisted Atkins in exiting the building when the victim reentered the structure and became trapped in the fire. Although the defendant kicked the front door off its hinges in an attempt to gain entry so that he and James could rescue the victim, they were unable to drag her to safety. Harold Carver, the state chief medical examiner, testified that the victim died of smoke inhalation.
Members of numerous law enforcement agencies investigated the fire, including Christopher Lennon, a detective with the Bristol police department, and Joseph Paola and Kevin McGurk, state troopers and certified fire marshals, from the state fire marshal's office. Lennon interviewed the defendant the morning after the fire; first at Bristol Hospital, and later at police headquarters. Lennon noticed during both interviews that, when the defendant agreed to empty his pockets so that Lennon could secure his clothes, the defendant possessed a lighter and a book of matches. At the police station interview, the defendant voluntarily signed a waiver of his rights and gave a statement about the fire, which was admitted into evidence.8 When asked about the lighter and the matches, the defendant stated that he did not smoke, but needed them to light a blowtorch at work with the Eastern Water and Development Corporation (Eastern).
The defendant returned for a second interview with Lennon in April, 1999, at which time he signed another statement.9 In that statement, the defendant said that James had told him that the victim had "words with him about not smoking in the house," so he had started smoking in the basement instead. The defendant said that James had told him that he knocked over an ashtray next to the dryer, and did not necessarily pick up all the cigarette butts, and was crying and said that he started the fire "that ... killed Granny." The defendant stated that he had assured James that the fire was an accident and that he did not kill the victim. James Palmer, a retired detective from Bristol who had participated in the April interview, testified that the defendant diagrammed the basement, and showed the officers where James allegedly had started the fire, specifically, near the clothes dryer.
Paola and McGurk investigated the fire for the state fire marshal's office, and concluded that the fire's burn pattern indicated that it had started in the basement of the town house, and traveled upward quickly through the house.10 Paola concluded that the area around the washer and dryer was the specific point of origin, based on the extensive damage and number of combustibles there, including clothing and cardboard boxes that drew the fire to that corner and up the nearby stairs. Significantly, the investigators concluded that cigarettes did not start the fire, as there were no ashtrays, cigarettes or remnants of cigarette filters, which are noncombustible fiberglass, near the area of origin.11 Although the investigators discovered a cigar hidden between layers of clothing near the area of origin, they concluded that it was a "red herring," rather than a "red flag" because it appeared that it never had been burned or smoked, and none of the clothing above it had burned either. After ruling out thermonuclear, electrical, mechanical and providential causes, the investigators concluded that the fire was set by human intervention, either accidentally or intentionally, via open flame such as matches or a lighter. Inasmuch as the investigators' accelerant detection dog did not detect any accelerants in the area of origin,12 the fire could not be classified as intentionally caused until more information, namely, results from Lennon's interviews with the defendant, James and Atkins, became available.
In addition to this evidence, the jury heard substantial circumstantial evidence to support a finding that the defendant had started the fire in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Atkins after the two men had an argument the night before about what to do with $18,600 from a recently liquidated retirement account that belonged to the victim.13 Indeed, Wanda Altizar and Mary Bellamy, the victim's sisters, and Vance Atkins, Lee Atkins' son, testified about the defendant and Atkins' long-standing dislike for each other, and the fact that neither man wanted the other to live in the house. Moreover, at the victim's wake, the defendant commented multiple times to Donna Lambert, his half-sister, and to Bellamy and Altizar, that, "it shouldn't have been Mom there in the coffin," and that Atkins should have been there instead.
Donna Ramsey, who had been married to the defendant from 1981 until 1998, testified that, when they first were married in the early 1980s, the defendant had expressed his desire to burn down the trailer in which they lived in West Virginia to get insurance money because they could not afford to fix its floors and appliances. One day in 1982, the defendant told Ramsey to get out of the trailer, which burned down immediately thereafter;14 they used the insurance check to put a down payment on furniture and rent an apartment. Several years later, in 1985 or 1986, the defendant stated to Ramsey that he had made money setting fires for people, although he was never arrested or convicted of any a crime as a result thereof. Ramsey also testified that, in the mid-1990s, the defendant threatened to burn down the couple's house on multiple occasions, although she acknowledged that he frequently had made threats that were not serious.
Finally, multiple witnesses, including DeGenova and Vance Atkins, testified that, at the time of the fire, the defendant was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, with tied sneakers, while the other occupants of the house were barefoot or in slippers. Moreover, the defendant mentioned during the interviews with Lennon that the fire started in the basement of the town house, allegedly because of James' smoking, despite the fact that the fire's point of origin was known at that time only to the investigators. Finally, despite the defendant's claim that he needed the lighter and book of matches for his work at Eastern, his last day of working there had been November 20, 1998, more than two weeks before the fire.15
The state charged the defendant with arson murder in violation of § 53a-54d, attempted murder in violation of §§ 53a-49 and 53a-54a, and arson in the first degree in violation of § 53a-111 (a)(1), and the case was tried to the jury. After the trial court denied the defendant's oral motion for a judgment of acquittal, the jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty on all three counts charged. After denying the defendant's motion for a new trial, the trial court rendered a judgment of guilty in accordance with that verdict, and sentenced ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Osimanti, No. 18311.
...that the error did not substantially affect the verdict." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Beavers, 290 Conn. 386, 419, 963 A.2d 956 (2009), quoting State v. Sawyer, 279 Conn. 331, 352, 357-58, 904 A.2d 101(2006), overruled in part on other grounds by State v.......
-
State v. Legrand
...a fair assurance that the error did not substantially affect the verdict.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Beavers, 290 Conn. 386, 396-97, 963 A.2d 956 (2009). ''A common law privilege for communications made by a patient to a physician has never been recognized in this state.......
-
State v. Chyung
...through, with action then or thereafter.2 Thus, its relevance to his intent to shoot his wife is tenuous. Cf. State v. Beavers , 290 Conn. 386, 399–408, 963 A.2d 956 (2009) (uncharged misconduct of both prior arson and threat to commit arson properly admitted to establish intent and absence......
-
State v. Campbell
...a criminal defendant is guilty of the crime of which the defendant is accused." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Beavers , 290 Conn. 386, 399, 963 A.2d 956 (2009). Section 4–5 (a) of the 2000 edition of the Connecticut Code of Evidence prohibits the admission of "[e]vidence of o......