State v. Brown
| Decision Date | 17 June 1975 |
| Citation | 362 A.2d 910,168 Conn. 610 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Dianne BROWN. |
John M. Byrne, Hartford, for appellant (defendant).
Richard F. Banbury, Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, was John D. LaBelle, State's Atty., for appellee (state).
Before HOUSE, C.J., and COTTER, LOISELLE, MacDONALD and LONGO, JJ.
The defendant was convicted by a jury of the crime of manslaughter in the first degree; General Statutes § 53a-55(a)(3); and has appealed from the judgment rendered on the verdict. That statute penalizes a person who, 'under circumstances evincing an extreme indifference to human life . . . recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes the death of another person.' She assigns error in the court's denial of her motions for a directed verdict and to set aside verdict, in its charge to the jury and in certain evidentiary rulings. 1
From a review of the evidence the jury could have found the following: On the evening of December 18, 1971, the Canton police department received a telephone call at approximately 10:40 p.m. from a woman who stated that she had just shot her husband. Responding to the call, Officer Stephen W. Cudworth proceeded to the defendant's home. Upon arrival, he spoke with the defendant and observed her husband's body lying on the floor next to the bed, with one leg on each side of one of the bedposts. In addition, Officer Cudworth saw that there were four holes in the top sheet on the bed next to where the body was located; the bodty was clad only in a sweatshirt and undershorts. Officer Cudworth observed an indentation in the pillow found on the side of the bed near the body.
Dr. Harold F. West, a Canton physician, called to the residence, pronounced Alexander M. Brown dead; he detected the odor of alcohol on the defendant's breath. A subsequent autopsy performed by Dr. Elliot M. Gross revealed that death had been caused by a gunshot wound of the right chest, and that the fatal bullet came to rest at a point three-and-one-half inches higher than the point of entry into the body.
Later that same evening the defendant was interviewed in her by Sergeant John D. LaDucer of the Canton police department. After she had been properly advised of her constitutional rights, she told the sergeant that she and her husband had been drinking wine and talking together prior to the shooting, and that she had picked up a rifle in the living room, and, after loading it, followed her husband into the bedroom. She further informed Sergeant LaDucer that while she was holding the rifle it discharged, and her husband fell to the floor; she did not explain why she had loaded the gun or how she happened to point it toward her husband.
The rifle used in the shooting of the victim is a single-shot, .22-caliber model that cannot be fired without first retracting the bolt and loading it, and then pulling back a knob or safety on the gun. The gun can then be fired only with a trigger pull in excess of four pounds.
During the trial, several expert witnesses appeared for the state, among whom were two employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. David M. Lattin, a special agent assigned to the F.B.I. laboratory, testified to his special training in the microscopic analysis of fibers, hairs, and related materials. His microscopic examination of the nose of the bullet taken from the body of Alexander Brown revealed five white cotton fiber particles adhering to the nose of the bullet. Agent Lattin performed a microscopic examination of the white cotton fibers taken from the nose of the bullet and the fabric composition of both the sheet and the sweatshirt which the victim was wearing at the time of his death. He had no way of knowing whether the fibers on the bullet came form the specific sheet in question. However, his examination disclosed five white cotton fibers on the front end of the bullet which were consistent with the fabric composition of the sheet but inconsistent with the fabric composition of the sweatshirt. In addition, he found four blue cotton fibers, of the same type noted in the composition of the sweatshirt around two of the holes located in the sheet, while no foreign fibers were found on the sweatshirt.
Robert Frazier, another F.B.I. special agent, testified as to his special training in the field of weapons, ammunition and ballistics. He examined the same sheet with the four holes which agent Lattin had examined. That examination revealed a piece of unburned gunpowder on the margin of the lowest of the four holes in the sheet. Agent Frazier also found that the four holes in the sheet had the physical appearance of small caliber bullet holes on the order of a .22 caliber. He further testified that those holes in the sheet had characteristics consistent with the passage of a single bullet of approximately .22 caliber through two folds in the sheet. Agent Frazier also gave expert testimony describing the path of a bullet through fabrics in close proximity, including the interlocking propensities of fibers from the various fabrics and the capacity for the bullet to pick up fiber particles from the fabrics through which the bullet has traveled.
Dr. Gross, the chief medical examiner of the state, and an experienced forensic pathologist, testified to his prior professional experience involving cases in which bullet holes were found in various fabrics and materials. In conducting the autopsy he performed on the body of Alexander Brown, Dr. Gross passed a surgical probe instrument through the four holes in the bedsheet. It was his opinion that these holes were caused by a bullet passing through the sheet.
On the basis of this and other evidence, the state claimed to have proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant guilty of first degree manslaughter under § 53a-55(a)(3), viz., that under circumstances evincing an extreme indifference to human life, she recklessly engaged in conduct which created a grave risk of death to Alexander Brown, and thereby caused his death. A crucial element of the defense was that the deceased was not in bed at the time the bullet was fired as the state claimed, but that he was standing in a corner of the bedroom and that the gun went off in the defendant's hands accidentally as she entered the bedroom to prepare to go shooting ducks with her husband. Accordingly, during the trial, the defendant moved to strike...
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