State v. Bouknight
| Decision Date | 22 November 2016 |
| Docket Number | SC 19326 |
| Citation | 323 Conn. 620,149 A.3d 975 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | State of Connecticut v. Derrick Bouknight |
Richard E. Condon, Jr., senior assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant).
Timothy F. Costello, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Patrick J. Griffin, state's attorney, Michael Dearington, former state's attorney, and Michael Pepper, supervisory assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
Rogers, C.J., and Palmer, Zarella, Eveleigh, McDonald and Robinson, Js.
The defendant, Derrick Bouknight, appeals1 from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a–54a (a), using a firearm in the commission of a felony in violation of General Statutes § 53–202k, carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of General Statutes § 29–35, and criminal possession of a pistol or revolver in violation of General Statutes § 53a–217c (a) (1). On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court abused its discretion in ruling that a Facebook2 profile page and photographs thereon were properly authenticated.
The following facts and procedural history are relevant to the present appeal, which arises out of a deadly shooting in the city of New Haven following a dispute between the victim, William Baines, and some of his neighbors. Baines lived in a house on West Division Street in New Haven with his girlfriend, Norma Monique Walters, and her cousin Ella Charie Evans. On October 9, 2010, Baines had won a physical altercation with Sherrod Daniels, which had started over a $100 debt that Baines believed Daniels owed him. Later that day, Baines and Daniels engaged in a verbal argument near the intersection of West Division Street and Dixwell Avenue. Walter's mother, Patricia Outlaw, was in the vicinity, intervened, and told Baines to calm down. After speaking briefly with Outlaw, Baines headed back to his house, which was just a short distance away. Soon thereafter, Daniels approached Baines' house with two other individuals. One of these individuals gave Outlaw $100 which was, in turn, given to Baines.
Later, there was an altercation between Baines and Korey Streater, who was a friend of Daniels. During that altercation Baines punched Streator and knocked him to the ground in front of a crowd of spectators. Again, Outlaw intervened and broke up the conflict.
A short while later, Baines was sitting on the front steps of his house with his mother, Tracy Fulton, his cousin, Michael Nicholson, and Nicholson's friend, Anthony Little. As Nicholson spoke to Baines, the defendant approached through an empty lot adjacent to the house. The defendant and Baines engaged in a heated discussion, during which the defendant demanded to know where the money was. Baines replied, “[I]t ain't got nothing to do with you,” “it's mine,” and “I don't owe nobody no money ....” The defendant and Baines continued to argue like this for a few minutes.
Evans, who had been inside the house, came out onto the porch. She recognized the defendant, with whom she was very familiar from having lived in the area. Evans observed that the defendant was wearing a plaid shirt with a black hood and a baseball cap that bore “some type of [crossed] symbol” and had a red underside to its bill. He was also wearing a pair of acid-washed jeans, which Evans had noticed him wearing on previous occasions.
As the argument between the defendant and Baines escalated, Baines stood up from the steps, and the defendant pulled out a black semiautomatic handgun.
Both Evans and Nicholson observed that the defendant was wearing a black glove on his right hand, with which he held the gun, but was wearing no glove on his left hand. Evans pleaded with the defendant to look at her and reminded the defendant that Baines' mother was right there. Nevertheless, the defendant raised his gun and, from a distance of between a few inches to an arm's length, fired one shot into Baines' chest, killing him.
As Baines fell, the defendant began to walk east along West Division Street toward Dixwell Avenue. He stopped briefly, turned back toward where Baines lay on the ground, and pointed the gun toward those standing at the scene. As the defendant continued to walk away, he encountered Walters, who was walking west. The defendant then turned into a vacant lot and fled.
Later that day, Evans identified the defendant from a police photographic array. Three days later, Walters likewise identified the defendant from a photographic array as the man she had seen fleeing the scene of Baines' murder.
The defendant was not seen in the vicinity of West Division Street and Dixwell Avenue after the shooting. He had fled to Elizabeth, New Jersey, where the Connecticut Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force of the United States Marshal Service (task force) located and arrested him on November 5, 2010. At the time of his arrest, the defendant was wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap with a red underside to its bill and one black glove on his right hand. He was not wearing a glove on his left hand.
During the course of the trial, the state proffered testimony by Officer Steven Manware, a New Haven police officer assigned to the task force, who was charged with the task of locating the defendant following the shooting. Manware testified outside the presence of the jury that the task force uses the Internet to track suspects and will often search social networking websites, including Facebook. During his investigation into the defendant's whereabouts in 2010, Manware found a Facebook profile bearing the defendant's name. At the state's request, in preparation for trial, Manware again accessed the defendant's Facebook page in 2014, and printed a portion of the Facebook profile and several photographs that he found there. Manware testified that the page and the photographs were the same as they appeared in 2010.
Subsequently, the state proffered printouts of a Facebook profile page and three photographs associated with that profile as exhibits. The defendant objected to the admission of these exhibits, arguing that there was no evidence that he created or maintained the Facebook profile or uploaded the photographs. The trial court overruled the defendant's objection and admitted the exhibits into evidence. Following trial, the jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty. The trial court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict and sentenced the defendant to seventy years of incarceration. This appeal followed. See footnote 1 of this opinion.
On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting the exhibits from Facebook. He asserts that: (1) the trial court never found that the defendant created or maintained the Facebook profile page or posted the photographs; (2) the information on the Facebook profile page was generic, easily obtainable and lacked the “ ‘distinctive characteristics' ” required to be authenticated on the basis of circumstantial evidence alone; and (3) the trial court, having improperly relied upon the “ ‘distinctive characteristics' ” method of authentication, never found that the photographs were accurate reflections of the scenes depicted and were not altered. In the defendant's view, because the profile page and the photographs were not properly authenticated, the trial court improperly admitted these exhibits into evidence. The state counters that it adequately authenticated the exhibits because: (1) the state showed that the Facebook profile belonged to the defendant based upon the pervasive consistency of the information and content found on that page that indicated that the defendant owned the page; and (2) the state was not obliged to establish that the defendant created or posted the photographs to his Facebook page, or to present a witness to testify that they...
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...a fair assurance that the error did not substantially affect the verdict." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Bouknight , 323 Conn. 620, 626–27, 149 A.3d 975 (2016).As the harmless error standard requires, we must examine the impact that the challenged statements had on the jury a......
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...of other properly admitted evidence, it was unlikely to have substantially swayed the jury's verdict. See, e.g., State v. Bouknight , 323 Conn. 620, 628, 149 A.3d 975 (2016) (improper admission of evidence was harmless because it was "cumulative of other properly admitted evidence" and "the......
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...a fair assurance that the error did not substantially affect the verdict." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Bouknight , 323 Conn. 620, 626–27, 149 A.3d 975 (2016).Although we acknowledge that Smola's description of the object in the defendant's backpack as a shoe box was probati......