State v. Hoffler

• Decision Date: 21 March 1978
• Citation: 389 A.2d 1257,174 Conn. 452
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Roland HOFFLER.

Page 1257

389 A.2d 1257

174 Conn. 452

STATE of Connecticut v. Roland HOFFLER.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Nov. 9, 1977.

Decided March 21, 1978.

Andrew Chulick, Sp. Public Defender, Bridgeport, for appellant (defendant).

Donald A. Browne, State's Atty., for appellee (state).

Before HOUSE, C. J., and LOISELLE, BOGDANSKI, LONGO and SPEZIALE, JJ.

HOUSE, Chief Justice.

On a trial to a jury, the defendant was found guilty of robbery in the first degree in violation of § 53a-134(a)(2) of the General Statutes in that he stole money from Americo Sciarabba and while doing so was armed with a deadly weapon, a pistol. He has taken this appeal from the judgment rendered on the verdict of guilty.

The statement of facts recited in the briefs of the defendant and the state and the findings on motions to suppress disclose the following circumstances: At about 10:30 a. m., on June 30, 1975, two black males armed with handguns and each carrying a leather jacket entered Rick's Liquor Store in Stamford. They held up the proprietor, Americo Sciarabba, and took about $70 from the cash register, $55 from Sciarabba's pocket, and about $17 from his wallet. The money from the cash register was put in a paper bag and the men also took a paper bag containing a quantity of pennies. They then put Sciarabba in the back room of the store, taped his wrists and ankles with two-inch adhesive tape and locked the door. A few minutes later, Sciarabba heard his name being called. He recognized the voice as that of a regular customer and responded to the call. The customer unlocked the door and let Sciarabba out of the back room. Immediately upon his release, Sciarabba telephoned the Stamford police and reported the holdup. He then noted that his own Bernadelli automatic pistol was missing from under the counter where it was kept and several items of his merchandise were also missing. The items missing included Sciarabba's only stock of the following: two bottles of White Horse scotch, one half gallon of Guckenheimer whiskey, and one bottle of Vat 69 scotch.

The customer who released Sciarabba from the back room arrived at the store just as the two robbers were completing their robbery. He later positively identified the defendant, Hoffler, as one of the two robbers. He also identified the other robber, Clyde Varner, who was tried jointly with the defendant.

Upon notification of the robbery, the Stamford police immediately issued over a "hot-line" radio network serving the surrounding communities details concerning the robbery. The broadcast included information of the belief that the robbers were two black males one 5' 9 and the other approximately 6' 2 tall, dressed in dark clothing, who had fled in a red automobile which was possibly a Mustang. At about 10:40 a. m., two Greenwich police officers, James Hirsch and Charles Johnson, heard the police broadcast describing the robbery and immediately proceeded to a location on the Connecticut turnpike near the Greenwich toll booths. They stationed themselves to look out for two black suspects fitting the description given in the "hot-line" message. Within five minutes after they had stationed themselves on the turnpike, they observed two black males proceeding westerly in a red automobile. They observed that the passenger in the car kept continually looking at the officers and turning away. The officers followed the car very briefly and then motioned the driver to pull his vehicle to the side of the highway. After it was parked, the officers directed the operator to get out of the car and the defendant, Hoffler, who was the driver, got out of the car and walked to the front of the police car. The passenger, Varner, also got out of the car. Officer Hirsch then walked over and looked into the red automobile. From the outside, he observed two brown paper bags on the floor of the car on the passenger's side. One of the bags was ripped, disclosing bills and assorted change. At the same time, he observed on the automobile's rear seat a large brown paper bag with a quantity of liquor bottles in it and a black leather jacket with the butt handle of a handgun protruding from one of the pockets. The officer then reached into the auto to touch the leather jacket and at that time observed another pistol in the other jacket pocket. Both guns were fully loaded. At that point, the officer removed his own service revolver and placed both Hoffler and Varner under arrest.

The Greenwich officers subsequently took into custody from the red automobile two leather jackets which were identified by Sciarabba as identical to those carried by the men who robbed him, the Bernadelli automatic pistol belonging to Sciarabba, two bottles of White Horse scotch, one bottle of Vat 69, one half gallon of Guckenheimer wiskey, one bottle of Bacardi rum and a bottle of Coca-Cola, all of which were identical with items missing from Rick's Liquor Store immediately subsequent to the robbery, two additional pistols identical to the two which the robbers had used in holding up Sciarabba, the ripped bag of money which also contained a torn and irregular portion of a ten-dollar bill identical to a similar portion of a bill which had been taken from Sciarabba's wallet, an empty adhesive tape roll, a quantity of loose and wrapped change and $87 in currency. Hoffler and Varner and the items taken from their car were turned over to the Stamford police who also secured an additional $55 from Hoffler's personal effects.

The record not only discloses a rather unusual trial but also reflects one which was interrupted by unusually frequent motions and objections. Although Hoffler and Varner were represented by public defenders, with a special one being appointed to defend Hoffler, both defendants claimed not only a lack of confidence in their assigned counsel but insisted that the presiding judge disqualify himself for partiality and breach of the canons of judicial ethics. The court, on its own motion, permitted Hoffler to act as "co-counsel" in his own defense with the privilege of examining witnesses and making motions. The trial was marked by the following claims of the defendants: that they preferred to remain at the correctional center rather than participate in the trial proceedings; that they desired to exercise a peremptory challenge of the trial judge; that they objected to the substitution of the state's attorney for the assistant who became ill shortly after the trial began; a claim of fatigue due to insufficient food; a claim of a head injury sustained by Hoffler when his head bumped a van door while he was being brought to court; repeated threats not to come into the courtroom from the court detention area; claims that poor health and illness prevented their effective participation in the trial; claims that witnesses were disregarding and evading the court's sequestration order; and even a motion by Hoffler, personally, for a mistrial on the grounds that he had observed the prosecutor enter the judge's chambers during a recess. The trial eventually concluded with the defendants refusing to come to the courtroom from the courthouse cell block so that final arguments, the charge to the jury and the recording of the guilty verdicts were conducted in the absence of both Hoffler and Varner.

On appeal, the defendant filed eleven assignments of error, but has pursued only six issues in his brief, claiming that the court erred (1) in denying his pretrial motion to suppress, (2) in denying his motion for a rehearing of his motion to suppress at the time of trial, (3) in admitting for the consideration of the jury the items taken from the defendant's car, (4) in denying his motion for a continuance to allow consolidation of pending actions, (5) in denying his motions for mistrial, and (6) in sustaining the state's objection to his motion to inspect the written statement of a police officer who testified during the pretrial hearing on the motion to suppress. Those assignments of error not briefed are considered abandoned. State v. Crawford, 172 Conn. 65, 66, 372 A.2d 154; State v. Ruiz, 171 Conn. 264, 265, 368 A.2d 222.

We will first consider the defendant's principal claim which relates to the admission into evidence of the very incriminating items consisting of guns and stolen property found in the car which were seized by the Greenwich police after the car the defendant was driving was stopped on the Connecticut Turnpike, the items were found and the defendant was arrested. In support of his claim, the defendant argues that the stopping was unlawful, that an unlawful arrest took place at the time he was directed to stop, and that the seizure of the items was illegal because it was done without a warrant and was not pursuant to a lawful arrest.

We find no illegality or impropriety in the action of the Greenwich police in stopping the car which the defendant was driving and in investigating the conduct of the occupants. The Greenwich police were acting in response to the Stamford police broadcast, the automobile and its occupants fit the description of the men sought in connection with the robbery which had occurred only minutes before and the conduct of the passenger in the car when he saw the officers further aroused their suspicions. We have considered recently many challenges to the legality of the stopping or searching of an automobile and the warrantless arrest of persons who a police officer has reasonable grounds to believe have committed or were committing a felony. They are discussed in detail in State v. Rice, 172 Conn. 94, 374 A.2d 128, and in State v. Acklin, 171 Conn. 105, 368 A.2d 212. Our decisions in those cases fully support the court's denial of the motion to suppress in the present case and the admission into evidence of the seized items. It is unnecessary to repeat here the extended discussion in the Acklin case of the legal principles involved. See also State v. Love, 169 Conn. 596, 363 A.2d...