State v. Cooper

• Citation: 438 A.2d 418,182 Conn. 207
• Court: Supreme Court of Connecticut
• Decision Date: 19 August 1980
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Nathaniel COOPER.

Page 418

438 A.2d 418

182 Conn. 207

STATE of Connecticut v. Nathaniel COOPER.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued June 3, 1980.

Decided Aug. 19, 1980.

Roger J. Frechette, New Haven, for appellant (defendant).

Linda K. Lager, Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, were Arnold Markle, State's Atty. and Mary Galvin, Asst. State's Atty., for appellee (state).

Before COTTER, C. J., and BOGDANSKI, PETERS, HEALEY and PARSKEY, JJ.

ARTHUR H. HEALEY, Justice.

The single issue presented in this appeal is whether the trial court erred in refusing to instruct the jury in accordance with the defendant's request to charge relating to the motive the complaining witness had to testify falsely.

The defendant Nathaniel Cooper, together with Rudell Carr and Toby Benjamin, was charged in a substituted information with burglary in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-102(a) and criminal attempt to commit robbery in the second degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-135 and 53a-49. The case was tried to a jury, which found the defendant guilty on both counts. This appeal followed.

The following facts, which could reasonably have been found by the jury, set the background for our consideration of the single assignment of error: On the evening of October 14, 1976, the complaining witness, Isaiah Williams, was seated in the bedroom of his apartment on Webster Street in New Haven when the door from the hallway to the bedroom flew open and he was confronted by three men, one of whom was armed with a shotgun. ¹ The person armed with the shotgun said "Hold it." One of these men was the defendant Cooper, who had robbed Williams previously. Williams grabbed a shotgun, started shooting at the men and wounded the defendant Carr. Williams had sold liquor at his home after hours in the past and had been arrested for doing so.

The evidence giving rise to the defendant's request to charge concerned an incident involving the complaining witness, Williams, in 1963. In that year, Williams shot a man who allegedly had entered Williams' place of business and had begun to assault him and his wife. As a result of the incident, Williams was charged with aggravated assault. Although he claimed at his trial that he had acted in self-defense, he was found guilty of aggravated assault and sentenced to a term of incarceration. At the 1978 trial of the defendant, Cooper's counsel asked Williams if his claim was the same then as it had been in the trial arising out of the 1963 shooting incident, that "you were trying to protect yourself, isn't it." Defense counsel pressed him on the matter by insisting that, as a result of the 1963 incident and his trial thereon, Williams knew that the only way he could justify his use of a gun in the present case was to claim that he was protecting himself. ²

In the course of the trial it became apparent that there were serious conflicts between the testimony of Williams and that of the defendant. The defendant testified that he was not even present at Williams' apartment on the night in question. ³ The defendant Carr also testified that Cooper was not present that night. Carr maintained that he and Benjamin, who did not appear at the trial, merely went to Williams' apartment to buy liquor. It was, therefore, evident that Williams' credibility was critical to the state's case.

The defendant filed the following request to charge respecting credibility: "The motive a person has in telling his story is always to be considered by you when weighing whether or not his story is true. You may consider the fact that Mr. Williams could only use reasonable force in protecting himself and therefore his motive for claiming to have seen a shotgun might well be to justify his use of force. State v. Annunziato, 169 Conn. 517, 528, 363 A.2d 1011." ⁴ The court refused to so charge and Cooper duly excepted. The defendant argues that the requested charge was critical because if the jury discredited Williams' testimony, there was no case against Cooper. He claims that the shotgun story was fabricated by Williams, who, he asserts, was acquainted with the legal principles that would justify his use of deadly force, and was thus motivated to so testify in order to save himself from criminal prosecution. The state claims that the charge, as given, adequately, accurately, and substantially covered the matter of credibility and, implicitly, the motive Williams had for testifying falsely, and that the court's refusal to adopt the specific language of the request did not constitute harmful error.

The defendant was entitled to have the jury correctly and adequately instructed on the pertinent principles of substantive law. See State v. Griffin, 175 Conn. 155, 163, 397 A.2d 89 (1978); 4 Wharton, Criminal Procedure (12th Ed.) § 540; see also Mack v. Perzanowski, 172 Conn. 310, 312, 374 A.2d 236 (1977); Berniere v. Kripps, 157 Conn. 356, 360, 254 A.2d 496 (1969). The charge must be correct in the law, adapted to the issues and sufficient to guide the jury. See State v. Annunziato, 169 Conn. 517, 531, 363 A.2d 1011 (1975); State v. DaVila, 150 Conn. 1, 5, 183 A.2d 852 (1962). "The primary purpose of the charge to the jury is to assist them in applying the law correctly to the facts which they find to be established." Velardi v. Selwitz, 165 Conn 635, 637, 345 A.2d 527 (1974). On review, we examine the charge to see if it fairly presents the case to the jury in such a way that injustice was not done under the law to the legal rights of the defendant. See State v. Harris, 172 Conn. 223, 226, 374 A.2d 203 (1977); Farlow v. Connecticut Co., 147 Conn. 644, 648, 166 A.2d 202 (1960).

"It is the law of this state that a request to charge which is relevant to the issues of the case and which is an accurate statement of the law must be given.... It is, however, also the law of this state that a refusal to charge in the exact words of a request will not constitute error if the requested charge is given in substance." Mazzucco v. Krall Coal & Oil Co., 172 Conn. 355, 357, 374 A.2d 1047 (1977); see also State v. Maresca, 173 Conn. 450, 460, 377 A.2d 1330 (1977); State v. Bennett, 172 Conn. 324, 330, 374 A.2d 247 (1977); State v. Avila, 166 Conn. 569, 574, 353 A.2d 776 (1974). In this case, it is apparent that the defendant's request to charge was substantially correct and was applicable to the issues in the case. Since the complaining witness could himself have been subject to prosecution depending only upon the veracity of his account of this particular criminal transaction, the court should have instructed the jury in substantial compliance with the defendant's request to charge to determine the credibility of that witness in the light of any motive for testifying falsely and inculpating the accused. ⁵ We emphasize, however, that in order for the request to be applicable to the issues in the case, there must be evidence, as there was here, to support the defendant's assertion that the complaining witness was the culpable party. The court performs its duty when its instructions are such as to give the jury a clear comprehension of the issues and proper guidance in the determination of those issues. See State v. Bennett, supra; State v. Alterio, 154 Conn. 23, 27, 220 A.2d 451 (1966). We conclude, therefore, that the court erred in not giving the defendant's requested instruction.

Our inquiry does not end here, however, for it remains to be determined whether it is likely that the error involved affected the result and, as a consequence, rose to the level of depriving the defendant of a fair trial. See State v. Ruth, 181 Conn. 187, 196, 435 A.2d 3 (1980); State v. Daniels, 180 Conn. 101, 113, 114, 429 A.2d 813 (1980); State v. McClain, 171 Conn. 293, 300, 370 A.2d 928 (1976). Because the defendant's claim does not involve the violation of a constitutional right, the burden rests upon him to demonstrate the harmfulness of the court's error. See State v. Ruth, supra, 180 Conn. at 196, 435 A.2d 3; State v. Pepe, 176 Conn. 75, 81, 405 A.2d 51 (1978); cf. Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 26, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 829, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).

We have concluded that the error was harmless. This conclusion rests principally upon three factors: the extensive cross-examination of Williams by defense counsel respecting his motive for falsifying his testimony; the court's thorough and unobjectionable instruction to the jury on the credibility of witnesses; ⁶ and the defendant's defense. As we have already noted, the defendant was given wide latitude in the cross-examination of Williams on the issue of motive. ⁷ The defendant was entitled to exercise a broad right of cross-examination on this matter. "Cross-examination to elicit facts which tend to show motive, interest, bias or prejudice is a matter of right, and although the extent of such cross-examination may often rest in the sound discretion of the court, a denial of the right, or its undue restriction, will constitute reversible error.... It is generally held that cross-examination for this purpose is a substantial legal right which may not be abrogated or abridged at the discretion of the court to the prejudice of the cross-examining party." State v. Luzzi, 147 Conn. 40, 46, 156 A.2d 505 (1959); see State v. Corley, 177 Conn. 243, 246, 413 A.2d 826 (1979); Moynahan v. Manson, 419 F.Supp. 1139, 1143 (D.Conn.) aff'd. without opinion 559 F.2d 1204 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 939, 98 S.Ct. 430, 54 L.Ed.2d 299 (1977). The jury were repeatedly made aware of Williams' motive for fabricating his account of the events at his apartment by his testimony placing a shotgun in the hands of the evening intruders. ⁸

Moreover, the court thoroughly and correctly instructed the jury on the matter of credibility. ⁹ It pointed out that the quality, and not the quantity, of testimony is significant; that any possible bias, prejudice or interest in the outcome of the trial of...