State v. Crosby
| Decision Date | 07 May 1985 |
| Citation | 196 Conn. 185,491 A.2d 1092 |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Fred Lee CROSBY. |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Daniel F. Egan, Milford, for appellant (defendant).
Susan C. Marks, Sp. Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, were John J. Kelly, State's Atty., and John M. Massameno, Asst. State's Atty., for the appellee (State).
Before PETERS, C.J., and HEALEY, SHEA, DANNEHY and SANTANIELLO, JJ.
After a jury trial the defendant was convicted of burglary in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-103 and also of larceny in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-122. On appeal he claims error (1) in the failure of the court to render a judgment of acquittal for insufficient evidence and (2) in the admission of evidence of his participation in similar offenses occurring about three weeks after the crimes presently before us. We find no error.
With respect to the claim of insufficient evidence, it is clear that the jury could reasonably have found the following facts from the testimony presented at the trial:
On June 1, 1981, at about 3 a.m., a burglar alarm at Shaw's jewelry store, located in a shopping center in Milford, was activated, and some Milford police officers responded. Upon arriving at the store they discovered that one of the glass panes in the front door had been broken inward, allowing entry. Four glass display counters located near the front of the store had been smashed, and items had been removed therefrom. A pane of glass in one door of a wall unit display case behind the counters had also been smashed. The pane of glass in the other door of the cabinet was intact, however, and a set of fingerprints was observed on the outside surface of the glass at the edge of this door. Some additional prints were discovered on a circular display case.
A piece of lumber, three to four feet in length, was found on the floor in front of the display counters. A cinderblock, which had apparently been used to break the glass in the door, was also found. Empty watch boxes were scattered on top of the display counters. Several watches and holders designed to exhibit watches in a display case were found by the police near a path leading from the rear of the shopping center to the parking lot of a church.
Ninety-one watches costing the jewelry store approximately $6000 were found to have been taken in the theft. The store had last been open on May 30, a Saturday, the break-in having occurred in the early morning hours of June 1, a Monday. The store owner testified that the glass display cases had been cleaned after 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 30, by store employees.
The Milford police were able to lift four fingerprints from the unbroken pane of glass in the door of the wall display cabinet. Only the prints of the right little finger and ring finger were sufficiently clear, however, to be used for identification purposes. These prints were subsequently found to match some known fingerprints of the defendant. Some other prints found at the scene proved not to be those of the defendant.
In his argument that the evidence of his guilt was insufficient, the defendant's principal contention is that the testimony of sergeant Stephen Ambrisco, upon whom the state relied as an expert witness on the subject of fingerprint identification, was inadequate to support a reasonable inference that the fingerprints found on the glass of the wall display cabinet door were those of the defendant. He does not contend that, if the prints were his, they were found under such circumstances that they may have been impressed at some time other than when the crimes were committed. See State v. Payne, 186 Conn. 179, 182, 440 A.2d 280 (1982); State v. Mayell, 163 Conn. 419, 426, 311 A.2d 60 (1972). The testimony that shortly before the store closed the display cabinets were cleaned with a solution that would remove fingerprints and that the store was inaccessible from that time until the occurrence of the crimes was sufficient to establish the defendant's participation in the crimes, if his were the prints identified.
After describing the procedures used in obtaining and analyzing the prints found on the wall display cabinet door, sergeant Ambrisco, using photographic enlargements of these prints and some known prints of the corresponding fingers of the defendant, testified that he found twelve "points of comparison" in respect to the right little finger and nineteen in respect to the right ring finger. He explained that a "point of comparison" was a similarity between the two prints. These similarities were illustrated by red lines and numbers drawn on the photographic enlargements, which were exhibits in evidence. He also testified that in fingerprint analysis twelve such points of comparison are normally the standard minimum for reaching a conclusion as to whether fingerprints can be identified as coming from a particular person.
On the day after the completion of his testimony, Ambrisco was recalled to the witness stand by the state over the objection of the defendant. The transcript of this testimony is as follows:
On this occasion the witness also testified that some palm prints found on other display cases did not match those of the defendant.
We agree with the defendant that the testimony given by Ambrisco upon his recall to the stand added nothing to the strength of the state's case, since the opinion which the officer said he had reached was never expressed. We disagree, however, with the claim that the preceding fingerprint identification testimony was insufficient to support a reasonable inference that the fingerprints found at the scene were those of the defendant. According to that testimony, twelve "points of...
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