State v. Gelormino
| Decision Date | 20 June 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 8438,8438 |
| Citation | 590 A.2d 476,24 Conn.App. 556 |
| Court | Connecticut Court of Appeals |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Kenneth GELORMINO, Jr. |
Vicki H. Hutchinson, Danbury, for appellant (defendant).
Judith Rossi, Assistant State's Atty., with whom, on brief, were Frank S. Maco, State's Attorney, and John Dropick, Asst. State's Atty., for appellee (state).
Before SPALLONE, LAVERY and LANDAU, JJ.
The defendant appeals from his conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of the crimes of burglary in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-101(a)(2), and assault in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-61. 1
On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court improperly (1) failed to give his requested jury instruction that the state had the burden of disproving his claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt, and (2) denied his motion for judgment of acquittal because there was insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction of burglary in the first degree. We hold that the trial court improperly refused to charge the jury that the state had the burden of disproving his claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt and we reverse the conviction of burglary in the first degree and assault in the third degree.
The jury could have reasonably found the following facts. The victim, Gordon Vaill, was an acquaintance of the defendant, Kenneth Gelormino, Jr. Early in the evening of August 12, 1988, Vaill and his friend, Dominic Consolini, broke into the defendant's family business, Trim Unlimited, located in Torrington, and took a toolbox, which they hid in a nearby house, intending to sell it at a later time.
The next morning, neighbors told the defendant that they had seen two men loading a red box into a black pickup truck outside Trim Unlimited. The defendant discovered a broken window at the back of the shop but did not report the break-in or the theft of the toolbox to the police.
That afternoon, the defendant's father, Kenneth Gelormino, Sr., himself a codefendant, suspecting Vaill's involvement, called Vaill's girl friend, Audrey McDonald, and asked her where he was staying. Upon her indication that Vaill was staying at Consolini's house, the defendant, his father and his brother William picked up McDonald at her home and drove her to Pulaski Street, where she pointed out Consolini's house. They parked nearby and engaged in a discussion as to who would have the best chance of gaining entry into Consolini's house. They agreed that William would go to the house and ask for Vaill.
They left McDonald at a restaurant and drove back to the Consolini house. William entered the house through a side door and told Vaill, who was sitting on a sofa in the living room, that he was there for a social visit.
At that point, the defendant and his father entered the house through the side door and William walked out. The defendant and his father asked Vaill, who was sitting down, for the toolbox and, when Vaill denied knowing anything about it, the father punched him in the head, rendering him stunned and dazed. The father continued beating Vaill with his fists and with a belt with metal rings, hitting his head, shoulders and back. Present during the altercation was Danielle Gordon, who was told by the father that Vaill was being beaten because he had taken something from them. Gordon then left the house and waited around the corner. The father continued to beat Vaill while the defendant searched the house. Thereafter, the defendant joined his father in the assault and commenced striking Vaill with a wooden two-by-four. During the assault, Vaill remained seated and attempted to shield his head with his hands.
After beating Vaill, the defendant and his father asked him who owned the television set that was in the room. Upon being told by Vaill that the set belonged to Consolini, the defendant stated, "It is mine now." He then picked up the television set and took it with him when he and his father left the house.
The victim was faint, dizzy and bleeding from multiple lacerations. A police officer, responding to a call, arrived at the house where he found the victim seated on the porch washing himself with a garden hose. The officer looked into the house through an open door and noticed blood on the floor. After obtaining a search warrant, the police entered Consolini's house where they found a bloodstained two-by-four, a bloodstained cane shaft and its detached handle. There were red stains on the back and arm of a love seat, on a cushion, on the stove top, on the kitchen floor and on a tabletop.
The victim was transported to the emergency room of Charlotte Hungerford Hospital where he was treated for multiple lacerations and abrasions to his head, face, arm and leg and for abdominal pain and shock. After it was determined that the victim was bleeding internally, emergency surgery was performed for a ruptured spleen, which was caused by blunt and severe trauma to the abdomen or back. The victim was hospitalized for ten days after surgery, including five days in intensive care. On August 27, he was readmitted for a second surgical procedure to relieve symptoms caused by adhesions that resulted from the splenic injury and the initial surgery.
The defendant, his father and brother were arrested as a result of the incident. The defendant was charged with assault in the first degree, General Statutes § 53a-59(a)(1), burglary in the first degree, General Statutes § 53a-101(a)(1) and (2), and larceny in the fifth degree, § 53a-125a.
The defendant, his father and brother were tried jointly to a jury of six. Prior to submitting the case to the jury, the court granted the defendant's motion for judgment of acquittal on the charge of assault in the first degree because the evidence failed to support the allegation that the defendant caused serious physical injury with a dangerous weapon, and indicated that it would charge, instead, on assault in the second degree. The court subsequently deleted subsection (1) () from the burglary charge, and instructed the jury only on subsection (2) ().
The jury convicted the defendant of assault in the second degree, burglary in the first degree and larceny in the fifth degree. 2 Thereafter, the defendant filed motions for judgment of acquittal on the assault and burglary counts. The court denied the motion with regard to the burglary count and reduced the conviction of assault in the second degree to the lesser included offense of assault in the third degree.
The trial court sentenced the defendant to one year on the third degree assault conviction, sixteen years on the first degree burglary conviction, execution suspended after five years, and six months on the fifth degree larceny conviction. The sentences of one year and of six months were to be served concurrently to each other but consecutive to the burglary sentence for a total effective sentence of sixteen years, suspended after six years with five years probation.
The defendant's first claim is that the trial court improperly refused to instruct the jury that the state had the burden of disproving his claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.
The defendant testified at trial that upon his entry into the...
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