State v. Esposito
| Citation | 670 A.2d 301,235 Conn. 802 |
| Decision Date | 30 January 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 14870,14870 |
| Court | Supreme Court of Connecticut |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. James ESPOSITO. |
Suzanne Zitser, Assistant Public Defender, for appellant (defendant).
John A. East III, Deputy Assistant State's Attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Michael Dearington, State's Attorney, and James G. Clark, Assistant State's Attorney, for appellee (State).
Before PETERS, C.J., and CALLAHAN, BORDEN, BERDON and HEIMAN, JJ.
The defendant appeals 1 from the judgment of conviction, following a jury trial, of felony murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54c, and of burglary in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-101(a)(1). 2 The defendant claims that the trial court improperly: (1) admitted into evidence the defendant's testimony from a prior trial on the same charges; (2) refused to admit into evidence certain testimony and documents concerning threats made against the defendant by the alleged coparticipant in the crime; (3) refused to admit into evidence certain information concerning the defendant's willingness to take a polygraph test, and the results of that test; and (4) admitted tracking evidence obtained by a police canine. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
At his first trial in March, 1990, the defendant, James Esposito, was tried before a jury on charges of felony murder, robbery in the first degree and burglary in the first degree. The defendant testified in his defense in that trial. The jury rendered a verdict of guilty on all three counts. The defendant appealed to this court from the judgment of conviction of the trial court, Hadden, J., and we reversed the judgment and ordered a new trial. State v. Esposito, 223 Conn. 299, 613 A.2d 242 (1992). In September and October, 1993, the defendant again was tried before a jury on the same charges. Although the defendant did not testify at the second trial, the state introduced the testimony he had given at the first trial. After the trial court, Fracasse, J., rendered a judgment of conviction in accordance with the jury's verdict, this appeal followed.
The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On the evening of September 5, 1988, the defendant and his friend, Brian Greco, went to the Orange Blossom Cafe, a bar in Orange. The two men left the bar together between 11 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. when the manager, Nicholas Amendola, Jr., (Amendola, Jr.), closed early.
At approximately 11:30 p.m., Robert Bessinger, Joyce Bessinger and Robert Velardi were in the first-level family room of the Bessingers' four-level home in Hamden. The Bessingers' young daughter was asleep in a third-level bedroom. Robert Bessinger and Velardi stepped into the backyard to shake out a rug while Joyce Bessinger cleaned the family room. Joyce Bessinger heard someone enter the house by the second-level front door and announce, A man whom she did not recognize, wearing jeans and sneakers, then came down into the family room holding a gun.
The man, whom Joyce Bessinger later identified as Greco, demanded to know where the Bessingers kept their money and jewelry. When she did not respond, he asked where the others were. She told him that they were outside and he went out the first-level rear door. Shortly thereafter, Greco, holding Robert Bessinger and Velardi at gunpoint, returned to the family room. At Greco's command, the Bessingers and Velardi lay face-down on the floor. After Greco ordered Robert Bessinger to show him where he kept his valuables, Bessinger led Greco to the third-level bedroom in which he kept two safes.
Before leaving the family room, Greco warned Velardi and Joyce Bessinger to keep their heads down or they would be shot by the "guns" who were watching at the windows. Velardi and Joyce Bessinger heard the footsteps of Greco and Robert Bessinger on the stairs, and then heard their footsteps and voices in the bedroom where the Bessingers' daughter was sleeping. Out of concern for her husband and daughter, Joyce Bessinger listened intently to the noises upstairs.
Velardi then heard another person, the defendant, come downstairs into the family room. Although Velardi could not see the defendant because Velardi's eyes were facing the floor, he believed that a second intruder was in the house because this individual's voice sounded deeper and more arrogant than Greco's, which Velardi described as cold and businesslike. The defendant threatened to shoot Velardi and Joyce Bessinger if they raised their heads. As the defendant walked away, Velardi raised his head slightly and saw that the defendant was wearing blue pants and work boots.
Velardi and Joyce Bessinger then heard the sounds of a struggle upstairs, followed by a single gunshot. At the sound of the shot, Velardi saw the defendant run up the stairs. At the same time, Velardi ran out of the first-level rear door into woods behind the house. Joyce Bessinger fled downstairs into a basement area, where she unscrewed the only light bulb and hid under a desk.
From the basement, Joyce Bessinger heard additional gunshots and the sounds of a struggle coming closer to her. After the third gunshot, she heard something fall down the stairs leading from the second level to the first-level family room. She then heard someone come down those stairs and she heard Greco ask, "Where is the bitch on the floor?" Greco sounded as if he were speaking to another person. She heard no reply.
After several minutes, Joyce Bessinger left the basement to go to her daughter, who was screaming. She climbed the stairs from the basement to the family room, and there she saw her husband, who had been shot and was bleeding profusely, lying at the bottom of the stairs leading from the second level. After retrieving her daughter, she called the police.
Velardi, in the meantime, had run to the neighboring house of Louis Calhoun. Velardi heard sounds of a departing car coming from the direction of the Bessinger house. Calhoun also heard a car leaving at a high rate of speed from the intersection of Paradise Avenue and Howard Drive, which is near the Bessinger house.
The Hamden police arrived at the Bessinger residence at 12:06 a.m. Robert Bessinger died from three gunshot wounds to the head, abdomen and left shoulder.
Joyce Bessinger identified Greco as the gunman from three separate photographic arrays. She and the Hamden police also produced a composite picture of the gunman that she showed to a group of family and friends. Two members of the group, Lori Bessinger, the sister of Robert Bessinger, and her boyfriend, Marco Esposito, the defendant's brother, immediately recognized Greco.
On September 20, 1988, the Hamden police arrested the defendant and charged him with felony murder. Accompanied by his attorney, the defendant later led police to a river in which police divers found the .25 caliber handgun that had been used to kill Robert Bessinger.
The defendant first claims that the trial court improperly admitted his testimony from the first trial because that testimony had been compelled by the state's unlawful suppression of evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215 (1963). More specifically, the defendant contends that his testimony at the first trial was "compelled" because he was required to testify to counter certain testimony of Nicholas Amendola, Sr., (Amendola, Sr.), which the defendant had been unable to impeach because the state had unlawfully suppressed material impeachment evidence in violation of Brady. The defendant claims that, because his testimony was compelled in this way, its subsequent use at his second trial violated the rule set forth in Harrison v. United States, 392 U.S. 219, 88 S.Ct. 2008, 20 L.Ed.2d 1047 (1968), which prohibits the use of a defendant's unlawfully compelled testimony against him. We disagree.
In order to understand the defendant's claim, it is necessary first to recapitulate the testimony given at the first trial by Amendola, Sr., and by the defendant. At the first trial, Amendola, Sr., gave the following testimony. On September 13, 1988, the defendant and Thomas Corolla went to the Orange Blossom Cafe to see Amendola, Sr., and his son, Amendola, Jr. The Amendolas and the defendant had been arrested together earlier that month for cocaine possession, and they planned to discuss the charges pending against them. The four men left the bar and drove to a parking lot to talk. Amendola, Sr., testified that, during their conversation in the car, the defendant admitted that he and his "cousin" had entered the Bessinger house intending to commit a robbery. Amendola, Sr., also testified that the defendant said that he had stayed downstairs while his cousin took one of the three adults upstairs to the safe, shot him, dragged him downstairs, beat him, and shot him in the back of the neck.
At the first trial, after Amendola, Sr., testified, the defendant gave the following testimony. After leaving the Orange Blossom Cafe with Greco on the night of September 5 1988, the defendant expected that Greco would take him directly home. During the ride, the defendant fell asleep on a mattress in the back of Greco's truck. He awoke when the truck stopped and Greco left the vehicle, saying, "I'll be right back." After waiting about five minutes, the defendant got out of the truck and began to look for Greco. Although the defendant did not find Greco, he realized that he was very near the home of the Bessingers, whom he knew through his brother Marco. He walked to the Bessinger home because he hoped to use their phone or get a ride home. Through the front screen door, he saw that Greco held a gun and was leading Robert Bessinger up the stairs to the third level of the house.
The defendant testified further that he followed Greco and Robert Bessinger upstairs and attempted...
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