State v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 28 July 1970
• Citation: 160 Conn. 28,273 A.2d 702
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Ronald JOHNSON et al.

Page 702

273 A.2d 702

160 Conn. 28

STATE of Connecticut v. Ronald JOHNSON et al.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

July 28, 1970.

Anthony V. DeMayo, New Haven, and, of the New York bar, Kristin B. Glen, New York City, for appellants (defendants).

David B. Salzman, Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, was Arnold Markle, State's Atty., for appellee (state).

Before ALCORN, C.J., and HOUSE, COTTER, SHAPIRO and BARBER, ^* JJ. HOUSE, Associate Justice.

The defendants, Ronald Johnson and Buddy Bonner, were found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to cause injury to persons and property in New Haven by means of explosive materials and compounds, in violation of § 54-197 of the General Statutes. It is unnecessary to relate in detail the circumstances of the offense of which they were convicted. It suffices to note that the state produced evidence to prove and claimed to have proved that the defendants, with others, conspired to obtain guns, dynamite and other explosive compounds with the intention and purpose of killing certain New Haven police officers and blowing up the New Haven police station and several banks in that city.

The defendants filed a joint brief in this appeal in support of numerous assignments of error, some of which are not applicable to both defendants and many of which we find it unnecessary to discuss. Upon a review of the entire case as presented to us, we find that a decision upon one assignment of error applicable to both defendants is dispositive of the appeal. This claim is that the court was in error in denying the motion of the defendants to strike the testimony of three employees of C. W. Blakeslee Company regarding the theft of dynamite from a construction site.

A significant element of the state's case was evidence that the defendants and others by prearrangement met with undercover government agents to whom they disclosed plans to kill certain New Haven police officers and blow up the New Haven police station and several banks and their desire to trade sticks of dynamite for machine guns and plastic explosives. Subsequently, on December 23, 1967, at the time and place arranged for the exchange, the police seized from a truck parked by an alleged coconspirator in front of the assigned meeting place two cardboard boxes containing a total of forty-three sticks of dynamite.

During the trial, three employees of C. W. Blakeslee Company were called as witnesses. Upon the representation of the then state's attorney that the dynamite as to which they testified would be 'tied up' to this particular case, the witnesses were permitted to testify that during the night of October 31, 1967, someone had ripped a lock off a toolbox at a construction site in Woodbridge and had taken about fifty sticks of dynamite and that the dynamite stolen was the same kind of dynamite as that subsequently seized at the rendezvous with the undercover agents in this case. At a later point in the trial the defendants, referring to the representation by the state that it would 'connect up the missing dynamite with these particular defendants,' moved that the testimony of the Blakeslee employees be stricken because it had not been so connected, was neither material nor relevant, and tended to show the commission of a crime with which the defendants were not charged. The motion was denied, proper exception taken, and the ruling assigned as error on this appeal.

The court gave no reason for its denial of the motion, and the only basis suggested by the record is the finding of the court, in connection with this aspect of the appeal, that when a codefendant, Curtis Belton, was arrested he told the arresting officers that on Halloween night, 1967, 'Johnson and some guys stole some dynamite from a construction site in Woodbridge, Conn.' It also appears that after Belton was taken to the police station he gave a statement to the police which contained the information that 'somebody' said that Johnson had a case of dynamite which he had obtained from a construction site in Woodbridge. There is nothing in the record nor in the evidence contained in the appendices to the briefs to suggest that, aside from being the same kind of dynamite (a kind in common and general use in the area) the dynamite sticks seized in the truck by the police were the same as those which had been stolen from the Blakeslee construction site. The only evidence in the case connecting the two lots of dynamite and making the theft from the Blakeslee Company relevant to the crime with which these defendants were charged consisted of the two statements of Belton.

As the defendants correctly point out, these statements could not properly have been used for such a purpose. The first statement made by Belton, at the time of his arrest, was admitted for consideration only with respect to the guilt or innocence of Belton himself. His second statement presented an unusual situation. It was offered in evidence by the state but ruled to be inadmissible under the rule of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694. Subsequently, Belton testified as a witness in his own defense. Over objection, the court permitted him to be cross-examined on the basis of this second statement, which had previously been ruled to be inadmissible, and thereafter the court admitted the statement as an exhibit but explicitly and repeatedly instructed the jury that the evidence could properly be considered only on the question of Belton's credibility. In its charge to the jury the court repeated the limited purpose for which Belton's statement might be considered. We conclude that even if the court's ruling admitting into evidence the statement by Belton which had been previously excluded under the Miranda rule could be sustained for the purpose of attacking his credibility, despite specific authority to the contrary in such cases as United States v. Fox, 403 F.2d 97 (2d Cir.), nevertheless, as to the appealing defendants, evidence as to the theft from the Blakeslee Company was irrelevant and prejudicial when the state failed to produce evidence connecting the dynamite stolen from the Blakeslee Company with the dynamite seized by the police at their rendezvous with the alleged conspirators as it was stated to the court the state would do when it first sought to have this evidence admitted. Because the state did not meet the condition upon which it justified the admission of evidence as to the dynamite stolen from the Blakeslee Company, and because its admission against these two defendants is not justified upon any other ground suggested in the record for its admission, the court erred in denying the motion of the defendants to strike the testimony of the Blakeslee employees.

The conclusion reached on these grounds renders unnecessary any further discussion of the propriety of the court's ruling. We would, however, note that under the circumstances the same result would be required by application of the principles recently reiterated in State v. Holliday, 159 Conn. 169, 173, 268 A.2d 368, where we discussed the guidelines by which a trial court must determine whether the prejudicial tendency of 'other crime' evidence outweighs its probative value. See also McCormick, Evidence § 157; 1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence §§ 232-248 (12th Ed.).

Although what we have said is dispositive of this appeal, we consider one further briefed assignment of error relating only to the defendant Johnson, since the same issue may arise upon a retrial of the case. The other briefed assignments of error are either without merit or involve claims and...