State v. Brown

• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Gruendel
• Citation: State v. Brown, 984 A.2d 86, 118 Conn.App. 418 (Conn. App. 2009)
• Decision Date: 15 December 2009
• Docket Number: No. 28924.,28924.
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Tiffany BROWN.

984 A.2d 86

118 Conn.App. 418

STATE of Connecticut v. Tiffany BROWN.

No. 28924.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued September 3, 2009.

Decided December 15, 2009.

Heather M. Wood, deputy assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant).

Susann E. Gill, supervisory assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Jonathan C. Benedict, former state's attorney, John C. Smriga, supervisory assistant state's attorney, and Toni M. Rosario-Smith, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

GRUENDEL, BEACH and ALVORD, Js.

GRUENDEL, J.

The defendant, Tiffany Brown, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-55 (a)(3). On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) there is insufficient evidence to support her conviction of manslaughter in the first degree, (2) the court's allegedly improper jury instructions violated her due process rights and (3) the court improperly denied her motion to suppress. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The defendant and the victim, Daayon Devane, were involved in a romantic relationship for six or seven months. Throughout their relationship, the defendant and the victim engaged in several arguments that escalated into physical altercations. Not once did the defendant call the police for assistance when such altercations arose. Instead, according to the defendant, on some occasions, she brandished a knife to quell such altercations, and, in each instance, the victim left her apartment.

On the morning of February 22, 2005, the defendant, sensing the possibility of another altercation with the victim, walked to the police station across from her apartment to obtain assistance. At the defendant's request, the police removed the victim from her apartment. Later that evening, the defendant and a friend drove to a pool hall where they saw the victim. There, the victim informed the defendant that he had been kicked out of his mother's house and, promising to be on his best behavior, asked to return to her apartment. The defendant acquiesced and together they left the pool hall in the early morning of February 23, 2005.

Upon returning to the defendant's apartment, the victim became enraged with the defendant for speaking with "mad dudes" at the pool hall. The victim grabbed the defendant's arm, hit her and pushed her. The defendant then entered the kitchen and brandished a steak knife, instructing the victim to "chill." As the altercation escalated, the victim followed the defendant into the kitchen, and she stabbed him in the neck with the steak knife. After being stabbed, the victim exclaimed, "yo, babe, look what you've done," exited the defendant's apartment, ascended the stairs to the second floor of the apartment complex, collapsed and eventually died from blood loss.

When police officers arrived at the second floor landing of the defendant's apartment complex, they found the defendant cradling the victim. The defendant made several statements in the presence of the police officers. Officer David Payne and Detective Michael Fiumidinisi heard the defendant address the victim: "Wake up, wake up; I didn't mean to do it." Payne then asked the defendant about the identity of the victim, to which she responded: "He's my boyfriend; he came at me." The defendant told Fiumidinisi: "Mike, I can't wake [the victim] up."¹ Fiumidinisi told the defendant to stop cradling the victim to allow medical personnel to assist him. As medical personnel began to assist the victim, Fiumidinisi also asked the defendant about the identity of the victim, to which she responded: "[He] was my boyfriend, and I stabbed him." Next, Fiumidinisi told the defendant that she was under arrest and placed her inside of a police car. While the defendant was alone in the police car, an officer standing nearby heard the defendant proclaim repeatedly: "He was beating me. I told him to get away from me. Then he fell on the knife. I didn't mean to stab him." From there, the defendant was transported to the police station, where she was advised of her Miranda² rights before providing a written statement in which she claimed that the victim had run into the knife. Thereafter, a jury trial followed, at the conclusion of which the jury found the defendant guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, and the court rendered judgment accordingly. From that judgment, the defendant appeals.

I

The defendant claims that there was insufficient evidence to support her conviction of manslaughter in the first degree pursuant to § 53a-55 (a)(3). Specifically, the defendant maintains that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she created a grave risk of death and that she evinced an extreme indifference to human life. We disagree.

We review the defendant's claim, which she preserved through her motions for a judgment of acquittal; see State v. Padua, 273 Conn. 138, 146 n. 12, 869 A.2d 192 (2005) (motion for judgment of acquittal on specific charge preserves charge for appeal); initially by setting forth our standard of review. "When reviewing sufficiency of the evidence claims, we [apply] a two part analysis. First, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict.... Second, we determine whether, from that evidence and all the reasonable inferences which it yields, a [trier of fact] could reasonably have concluded that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Wideman, 36 Conn.App. 190, 202, 650 A.2d 571 (1994), cert. denied, 232 Conn. 903, 653 A.2d 192 (1995).

Moreover, "[w]e note that the jury must find every element proven beyond a reasonable doubt in order to find the defendant guilty of the charged offense, [but] each of the basic and inferred facts underlying those conclusions need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.... If it is reasonable and logical for the jury to conclude that a basic fact or an inferred fact is true, the jury is permitted to consider the fact proven and may consider it in combination with other proven facts in determining whether the cumulative effect of all the evidence proves the defendant guilty of all the elements of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Ledbetter, 275 Conn. 534, 542, 881 A.2d 290 (2005), cert. denied, 547 U.S. 1082, 126 S.Ct. 1798, 164 L.Ed.2d 537 (2006).

"[T]he statute on manslaughter in the first degree ... provides in relevant part: A person is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree when ... (3) under circumstances evincing an extreme indifference to human life, he recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to another person, and thereby causes the death of another person. For the defendant to have been found guilty of this offense, the state had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following: (1) that the defendant engaged in conduct that created a grave risk of death; (2) that in doing so the defendant acted recklessly; (3) under circumstances evincing an extreme indifference to human life; and (4) the defendant caused the death of the victim.... Additionally, the state had to prove that the defendant had the general intent to engage in conduct that created a grave risk of death to another person under circumstances evincing extreme indifference to human life." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Best, 56 Conn.App. 742, 753-54, 745 A.2d 223, cert. denied, 253 Conn. 902, 753 A.2d 937 (2000).

The defendant concedes that, acting recklessly, she caused the victim's death. She challenges the jury's finding that she acted under circumstances evincing an extreme indifference to human life and that she created a grave risk of death to the victim as a result of her conduct.

"Our Penal Code does not define, in title 53a of the General Statutes, what constitutes extreme indifference to human life [or grave risk of death].... Therefore, it is appropriate to look to the common understanding of the term[s] as expressed in a dictionary." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. McCoy, 91 Conn.App. 1, 4, 879 A.2d 534, cert. denied, 276 Conn. 904, 884 A.2d 1026 (2005). In examining what constitutes an extreme indifference to human life, "we have stated that the legislature modified the level of indifference required with the adjective extreme, which has been defined to mean existing in the highest or greatest possible degree.... It is synonymous with excessive.... Extreme indifference to human life has been defined accurately, in part, as more than [m]ere carelessness or ordinary recklessness.... Extreme indifference to human life also has been defined accurately, in part, as a high degree of disinterest to human life." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. "What evinces an extreme indifference to human life is really a question of fact." State v. Best, supra, 56 Conn.App. at 755, 745 A.2d 223. Further, in examining what constitutes a grave risk of death, this court has noted that Webster's Third New International Dictionary "defines the adjective `grave' as meaning `very serious; dangerous to life.'" Id., at 756, 745 A.2d 223.

Viewed in the light most favorable to sustaining the defendant's conviction, the evidence was sufficient to prove that the defendant evinced an extreme indifference to human life. The jury could have found that the defendant stabbed the victim in the neck. During her physical altercation with the victim, the defendant, by her own admission, entered the kitchen and brandished a steak knife. Upon discovering the defendant next to the unconscious victim, Fiumidinisi testified, the defendant told him that she had stabbed the victim. Peter DeForest, a professor of criminalistics at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, testified that...