State v. Harris
| Decision Date | 11 January 1977 |
| Citation | 374 A.2d 203,172 Conn. 223 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | , 9 A.L.R.4th 892 STATE of Connecticut v. Daniel HARRIS, Jr. |
Stephen B. Horton, Enfield, for appellant (defendant).
Richard F. Banbury, Chief Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, was George D. Stoughton, State's Atty., for the appellee (state).
Before HOUSE, C. J., and LOISELLE, BOGDANSKI, LONGO and BARBER, JJ.
This is an appeal by the defendant, Daniel Harris, Jr., from the judgment rendered following a jury verdict finding him guilty of possession and of sale of the narcotic drug heroin in violation of 1969 Public Acts, No. 753, §§ 18(a) and 19(a) (General Statutes §§ 19-480(a), 19-481(a)) and § 19-452 of the General Statutes, and in addition to this judgment on the verdict, an appeal from the judgment that the defendant is an habitual criminal as charged pursuant to then § 54-121 of the General Statutes. The court sentenced the defendant to confinement in the Connecticut correctional institution at Somers for a term of eight to thirty years on the first count and a concurrent term of two to five years on the second count, for a total effective sentence of eight to thirty years.
The sole claim of error pressed by the defendant on this appeal is that the trial court committed prejudicial error in the course of its charge in telling the jury that "(i)n weighing the testimony of witnesses, it must be considered by you that some witnesses who testified are self-confessed or convicted criminals and, everything else being equal, you would not believe the testimony of a man who has committed a crime as readily as you would that of a man of good character." The defendant duly excepted to this portion of the charge.
In the light of the evidence produced at the trial, an instruction to the jury concerning the testimony of witnesses who had been convicted of serious crimes was very relevant. "On numerous occasions this court has stated that the trial court in a criminal case may, in its discretion, make fair comment on the evidence and particularly on the credibility of witnesses." State v. Cari, 163 Conn. 174, 182, 303 A.2d 7, 10.
From the evidence, the jury could have found the following facts: On March 31, 1970, Frederick Bird was a state trooper assigned as an undercover officer to investigate traffic in narcotics in Hartford. Trooper Bird and Richard Roane, a police informant with a criminal record who had known the defendant in prison, met the defendant at the Federal Diner on High Street in Hartford and they then went to a car parked on Church Street. Once inside the car, Trooper Bird gave the defendant $150 which the defendant counted. The defendant then handed a bundle of glassine envelopes to Roane, who subsequently turned them over to Trooper Bird. The glassine envelopes bought from the defendant were turned over to another police officer and by tests proven to contain heroin.
As a result of this incident, the defendant was arrested and charged with the possession and sale of heroin. During the trial, the defendant presented as a witness Harold L. Williams who testified that he was then residing in the Connecticut correctional institution at Somers and that Roane had admitted to him that the drugs involved in this case belonged to Roane and had not come from the defendant. Williams testified about his criminal record: convictions in 1962 and 1964 for violation of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act; in 1969 for attempted breaking and entering, breaking and entering in the daytime and possession of burglary tools in the nighttime; and in 1971 for escape from a correctional institution, and for a federal violation of theft of mail.
Another witness, Henry G. Robinson, testified that Roane had approached him prior to the incident in question and told him that he, Roane, was in possession of twenty-five bags of "stuff" and had asked Robinson to pretend to sell the bags to him. According to Robinson, another white male was in the car with Roane when Roane made this offer and Robinson refused a part in the transaction. Robinson also testified about his own criminal record: he had been convicted of a felony on one occasion, he had been arrested five times, and a narcotics charge was then pending against him.
It is well established that evidence of a prior conviction is admissible to impeach the credibility of a witness when the conviction is for a crime for which imprisonment may be for more than one year, as was the circumstance as to each witness in question in this case. General Statutes § 52-145; State v. Hall, 165 Conn. 599, 606, 345 A.2d 17; State v. Bitting, 162 Conn. 1, 9, 291 A.2d 240; Heating Acceptance Corporation v. Patterson, 152 Conn. 467, 472, 208 A.2d...
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