State v. Jacobs

• Decision Date: 31 July 1984
• Citation: 479 A.2d 226,194 Conn. 119
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Paul JACOBS.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Page 226

479 A.2d 226

194 Conn. 119

STATE of Connecticut v. Paul JACOBS.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 10, 1984.

Decided July 31, 1984.

Richard Emanuel, Bridgeport, with whom, on the brief, was Joseph Mirsky, Bridgeport, for appellant (defendant).

Robert A. Lacobelle, Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, was Donald A. Browne, State's Atty., for appellee (state).

Before SPEZIALE, C.J., and PETERS, PARSKEY, SHEA and GRILLO, JJ.

GRILLO, Associate Justice.

The defendant Paul Jacobs was charged in a substituted information with having committed, on April 11, 1980, the crime of manslaughter in the first degree in violation of § 53a-55(a)(1) ¹ of the General Statutes. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the information and elected to be tried by a jury of six. The jury returned a verdict of guilty as charged, and the defendant was sentenced on June 30, 1982, to a term of imprisonment of not less than four and one-half nor more than nine years. The defendant has appealed from the judgment rendered on the jury's verdict.

The jury could reasonably have found the following facts from the evidence introduced at trial. The defendant and a companion John Megura were drinking at the Good Times Restaurant in Bridgeport during the evening of April 10, 1980. They had been drinking at the bar for about two hours when, at about midnight, the barmaid "shut them [both] off" because "they were getting loud and [she] felt they had had enough [alcohol]." A short time later, the victim Frank Martinsky, who was playing pool in the barroom, and Megura began to exchange unfriendly words. Megura walked to the pool table where he and the victim continued their verbal argument with some physical gesturing. A short time after the argument began, the defendant walked from the bar towards the pool table, displayed a gun and indicated that he would use it if the victim hurt his friend.

In response, the victim entered the restaurant's kitchen and reappeared with a butcher knife in his hand. Holding the knife in front of him, he began to back the defendant and Megura out of the bar. The defendant, still holding the pistol, and Megura, now holding a small buck knife, were backed out of the bar onto the sidewalk. They continued to argue with the victim, who stood inside the doorway of the restaurant. The defendant was standing on the sidewalk about six to eight feet from the victim when, holding his gun with two hands in a shooter's position, he fired a single shot into the victim's chest. The defendant fled the scene, but was apprehended a short time later. The victim was taken to a hospital where he died eight days later.

Officer James Walsh, one of the officers who apprehended the defendant that night, testified that after the defendant was located, he had had to be carried to the car to be transported to police headquarters. Officer Walsh testified that he brought the defendant, "conscious, but uncooperative," to the police station and turned him over to detectives Flynn and Giblin. Detective Giblin testified that he felt that the defendant was "highly intoxicated," but he could not state whether or not he smelled alcohol on the defendant's breath.

Detective Robert Biroscak, who interviewed the defendant at 9:30 on the morning of April 11, 1980, testified that the defendant was "[a]lert, and cooperative" that morning when he gave a statement. In his written statement, the defendant admitted that he had had "a couple" of drinks but that he was not intoxicated at the time of the shooting. He also admitted that he shot the victim in order "[t]o stop him from making a possible killing of John Megura."

On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court erred when it (1) excluded the defendant's offer of proof on the cause of death issue, (2) refused to charge the jury on several lesser included offenses, and (3) failed to charge the jury on the defense of intoxication. We find no error.

In his first claim, the defendant maintains that the trial court erred when it excluded the proffered testimony of Eric Munoz, a physician, which would have shown that the cause of death was the grossly negligent medical treatment which the victim received while in the hospital. ² The court refused to allow such testimony on the ground that evidence of gross negligence by treating physicians was immaterial and irrelevant unless it could be established that, as a matter of law, the mistreatment was the sole cause of death. In accordance with that ruling, the trial court declined to instruct the jury on the exculpatory effect of intervening negligent medical treatment. The defendant now argues that evidence of gross medical negligence which merely contributes to a victim's death is properly admissible under existing Connecticut law. Alternatively, he urges this court to overrule existing precedent and adopt a view which would allow such evidence to be introduced even if it cannot be established that the gross negligence was the sole cause of death. We disagree with the defendant's interpretation of Connecticut law. We refuse, moreover, to depart from decisional precedent.

John Klein-Robbenhaar, a doctor specializing in the field of pathology and certified by the American Board of Pathology in anatomic and clinical pathology, testified that, on April 19, 1980, he performed an autopsy on the body of Frank Martinsky. The doctor's findings as to the injuries caused by the bullet are not in dispute. He found that the bullet entered the victim's body in the left chest area, travelled through the diaphram into the left lobe of the liver, through the anterior and posterior wall of the stomach, and through the duodenum. It lacerated the left renal artery and vein and shattered the posterior aspect of the twelfth thoracic vertebra before it came to rest in the muscles of the back. Klein-Robbenhaar testified that the damage to the twelfth thoracic vertebra caused "within this particular victim, paralysis of both lower legs during his week that he was alive after the shooting"; and the injury to the renal artery, in and of itself, would have caused death if untreated, as would the injury to the duodenum. Although the victim underwent surgery at the hospital, his surgeon apparently failed to repair injuries to both the renal artery and the duodenum. On April 18, 1980, Frank Martinsky died. Klein-Robbenhaar testified "that the cause of death in this particular person is a combination of a number of factors. One is the blood loss which created a state of shock; and two is the peritonitis that ensued after the small bowel blew out. Peritonitis gave rise to sepsis, blood poisoning, which in turn again aggravated the state of shock and ultimately--you know, caused his vital organs to cease functioning."

It is generally recognized that where death ensues from a dangerous wound inflicted upon another, it is ordinarily no defense that unskilled or negligent medical treatment aggravated the injury. The rule was first enunciated by this court in State v. Bantley, 44 Conn. 537, 540, 26 Am.Rep. 486 (1877): "If one person inflicts upon another a dangerous wound, one that is calculated to endanger and destroy life, and death ensues therefrom within a year and a day, it is sufficient proof of the offense either of manslaughter of murder as the case may be; and he is none the less responsible for the result although it may appear that the deceased might have recovered if he had taken proper care of himself, or that unskillful or improper treatment aggravated the wound and contributed to his death."

The Bantley rule has been repeatedly followed by this court and appears to be in accord with the majority position in other states on this issue. See State v. Tomassi, 137 Conn. 113, 75 A.2d 67 (1950); State v. Leopold, 110 Conn. 55, 147 A. 118 (1929); State v. Block, 87 Conn. 573, 89 A. 167 (1913); 100 A.L.R.2d 785-86. In Bantley, the victim suffered a severe gunshot wound to his arm between the shoulder and the elbow. He was treated at a hospital and died eleven days later from lockjaw. The medical testimony differed radically as to the manner in which the wound should have been treated. The defendant requested the court to charge the jury that if they "should find that the death of [the victim] was the result or consequence of willful mismanagement or gross carelessness on the part of the attending surgeons, they could not find the accused guilty of manslaughter, as charged in the information." State v. Bantley, supra, 44 Conn., 537, 26 Am.Rep. 486. The trial court refused to instruct the jury as the defendant requested but charged "that if they should find that the accused willfully, and without justifiable cause, inflicted on [the victim] a dangerous wound, from which death would be likely to ensue, and if they should find also that his death did in fact ensue from and was caused by the wound, and not from any other cause, carelessness and mismanagement of whatever character on the part of the attending surgeons would be immaterial, and the treatment of the case by them, whatever it may have been, could not avail the accused as a defense." Id., 537-38. This court found no error on the part of the trial court in refusing to give the defendant's charge as requested or the instructions as given to the jury.

In State v. Tomassi, supra, 137 Conn., 118, 75 A.2d 67, this court reiterated the Bantley rule and further clarified it by finding no error in that portion of the charge to the jury which stated: " '[I]t does not necessarily follow that a wound is not the cause of a death simply because there was negligence in the treatment of the wound or of the wounded man.... [I]t is not essential that the wound be the sole cause of death. So where a wound, either operating directly or indirectly, by causing some other condition which produces death, has been a substantial factor in causing a death, it is still to be regarded as the cause of the death even...