State v. Dawson
Decision Date | 13 August 2021 |
Docket Number | SC 20361 |
Citation | 263 A.3d 779,340 Conn. 136 |
Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Andre DAWSON |
Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Erica A. Barber, assigned counsel, for the appellant (defendant).
Nancy L. Walker, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Paul J. Ferencek, state's attorney, and Nadia Prinz, former assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
Robinson, C. J., and McDonald, D'Auria, Kahn, Ecker and Keller, Js.
The defendant, Andre Dawson, appeals1 from the judgment of the Appellate Court affirming his conviction, rendered following a jury trial, of criminal possession of a pistol or revolver in violation of General Statutes § 53a-217c.2 The defendant claims that the Appellate Court incorrectly concluded that the state had adduced sufficient evidence at trial to support his conviction. We agree and, accordingly, reverse in part the judgment of the Appellate Court.
The opinion of the Appellate Court sets forth the following relevant facts and procedural history. "At approximately 9:35 p.m. on August 10, 2014, Police Officers Kyle Lipeika, Stephen Cowf, and Michael Pugliese (officers) were patrolling Washington Village, a housing complex in Norwalk. The officers were members of the Street Crimes Task Force within the Special Services Division (task force) of the Norwalk Police Department (department).3 They had entered Washington Village from Day Street and walked through an alley that led to a courtyard between buildings 104 and 304. Lipeika was shining a flashlight in order for people in the courtyard to see the officers approaching. Lipeika and Cowf were wearing uniforms with yellow letters identifying them[selves] as police. When the officers entered the courtyard, they saw benches, a picnic table, a cement retaining wall,4 bushes, a playground, and six individuals.5
"The defendant, Kason Sumpter, and Altolane Jackson were seated at the picnic table near a corner formed by the cement walls of a planter. The defendant was seated with his back to the cement wall without bushes. ... Brian Elmore first walked away from the officers but turned back and sat at the picnic table.6 To establish rapport with the individuals sitting at the table, the officers engaged them in conversation. As was their practice, the officers scanned the area for firearms and narcotics that the individuals may have tried to conceal. 7
As Cowf and Pugliese conversed with the individuals at the picnic table, Lipeika stepped onto the wall behind the defendant and immediately saw in plain view a gun lying in the corner by the bushes.
The DNA that Weisgerber swabbed from the gun and ammunition is touch DNA because it was deposited on the gun or ammunition when someone [either] touched them directly, [or his DNA became present on them] through a secondary transfer or ... aerosolization, that is, coughing or sneezing. Touch DNA comes from skin cells left behind when a person touches an object. The quantity and quality of touch DNA vary according to the character of the object's surface, i.e., rough or smooth, and the length of time the DNA has been on the object. DNA degrades with time due to environmental factors, such as heat and moisture. Degradation makes it difficult to amplify the DNA and, in some cases, even to detect DNA.
9
(Citation omitted; footnote added; footnotes in original; footnote omitted.) State v. Dawson , 188 Conn. App. 532, 536–41, 205 A.3d 662 (2019). The court sentenced the defendant to a term of ten years of imprisonment, two years of which were a mandatory minimum, on the conviction of criminal possession of a pistol or revolver, and a term of three months of imprisonment on the conviction of criminal trespass in the third degree, with the sentences to run consecutively, for a total effective sentence of ten years and three months of imprisonment. Id., 541, 205 A.3d 662. Thereafter, the defendant appealed to the Appellate Court.
On appeal to the Appellate Court, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that "there was insufficient evidence to convict him of criminal possession of a pistol or revolver because there was insufficient evidence of his knowledge of the gun and no evidence to prove his dominion or control over it." Id. The Appellate Court rejected the defendant's claim, concluding that "there was sufficient circumstantial evidence [from] which the jury reasonably could have inferred that the defendant was in possession of the gun when he entered the courtyard, that he put it near the bushes when the police arrived so that it would not be found on his person, and that he intended to retrieve the gun when the police left." Id. at 555–56, 205 A.3d 662. Specifically, the court reasoned that, because "the gun was found in plain view and appeared to have been placed near the bushes recently," the jury reasonably could have "inferred that the person who put the gun near the bushes did not abandon it and leave the courtyard but, instead, was one of the six individuals in the courtyard when the officers arrived." Id. at 546, 205 A.3d 662. The court further reasoned that the jury reasonably could have found, on the basis of Lipeika's testimony, that "the defendant quickly put the gun on the wall near the bushes to avoid being found with it" when the police arrived because, "when individuals who have a gun in their possession become aware of a police presence, they try to ‘discard ... or stash’...
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