State v. Jones

• Decision Date: 18 October 2005
• Docket Number: No. 25398.,25398.
• Citation: 882 A.2d 1277,92 Conn.App. 1
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Roshun C. JONES.

882 A.2d 1277

92 Conn.App. 1

STATE of Connecticut v. Roshun C. JONES.

No. 25398.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued February 10, 2005.

Decided October 18, 2005.

Gary A. Mastronardi, Bridgeport, for the appellant (defendant).

Elizabeth M. Moseley, special deputy assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Patricia M. Froehlich, state's attorney, and Vincent J. Dooley, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

LAVERY, C.J., and DiPENTIMA and McDONALD, Js.

Opinion

MCDONALD, J.

The defendant, Roshun C. Jones, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a trial to the jury, of, among other charges,¹ two counts of misconduct with a motor vehicle in violation of General Statutes § 53a-57 (a). The defendant claims that the state presented insufficient evidence to sustain his conviction of the two counts of misconduct with a motor vehicle because the state failed to establish that his conduct caused the deaths of two victims. We disagree.

In considering the defendant's claim, we review the trial transcript and the exhibits. See State v. Stagnitta, 74 Conn.App. 607, 609, 813 A.2d 1033, cert. denied, 263 Conn. 902, 819 A.2d 838 (2003).

The following evidence was presented at trial. At approximately 5:30 p.m. on September 23, 1999, the defendant was driving a red-orange 1990 Ford Mustang, with his friend, Jason Benoit. While driving on Route 138 in Jewett City, the defendant and Benoit passed a green Mustang, driven by Dennis Waidler, who had as a passenger his girlfriend, Renee Hasbrouck. The defendant then turned onto Route 12, traveling north toward Plainfield.

Waidler then passed the defendant as they traveled north along Route 12. In that area, Route 12 is a two lane highway with northbound and southbound lanes. At that time, Hasbrouck made a derogatory remark about the defendant's Mustang, and the defendant began to race with Waidler and, in an attempt to pass Waidler, accelerated his vehicle to sixty-five miles per hour in second gear. Driving at high speed, the two Mustangs, Waidler's followed by the defendant's, proceeded to pass two vehicles, one of them a tractor-trailer. After passing the tractor-trailer, the defendant drove his Mustang into the southbound lane on Route 12 so as to drive alongside Waidler. At that point, an approaching vehicle in the southbound lane slowed so that the defendant could move back into the northbound lane behind Waidler. Once the southbound vehicle passed, the defendant again moved his Mustang into the southbound lane alongside Waidler.

The defendant and Waidler continued driving north on Route 12 at a high rate of speed, at times side by side, approaching Toper Road. Avehicle driven by Chad Langlois, which had stopped at the intersection of Toper Road and Route 12, turned left into the northbound lane of Route 12. Waidler, driving at a speed in excess of sixty-five miles per hour and fast approaching the intersection of Route 12 and Toper Road, slammed on his brakes and swerved into the southbound lane so as not to collide with the rear of Langlois' vehicle. In the southbound lane, Waidler veered into the path of an oncoming southbound motorcycle driven by Ian Cloutier, who had as a passenger Jaclyn Cinque, the twelve year old daughter of his fiancee. Waidler slowed his vehicle and moved his Mustang back into the northbound lane in an attempt to avoid the motorcycle. The left rear of Waidler's car, however, collided with the motorcycle, throwing Cloutier and Cinque from the bike. Waidler lost control of his vehicle and it flipped three or four times before coming to rest on its roof on an embankment on the eastern side of Route 12, next to the northbound lane. Both Waidler and Hasbrouck were thrown from the vehicle as it flipped.

The defendant and Benoit heard the crash and saw the accident. They saw Waidler swerve to avoid the vehicle that had turned onto Route 12, then collide with the motorcycle, and saw Waidler and Hasbrouck thrown out of the vehicle as it flipped over. A piece of metal dislodged from Waidler's tire rim in the collision, and as the defendant drove past it, the debris punctured his Mustang's left front tire. The defendant continued north on Route 12 for approximately one-half mile before realizing he had a flat tire. He then drove his vehicle to the right side of the road, made a U-turn and stopped the car on the right side of the southbound lane on Route 12.

The defendant and Benoit walked back to the scene of the accident, where Cloutier, Cinque and Hasbrouck lay severely injured, with people tending to them. At the accident scene, the defendant stated that he was scared, that he did not mean to "do it" and repeatedly stated, "We were only passing." Cloutier, who had been thrown from his motorcycle in the accident, lay unresponsive, with the lower portion of his left leg severed. At the edge of the southbound lane, Cinque also lay unresponsive in the fetal position. The motorcycle remained in the middle of the southbound lane. Waidler's green Mustang had come to rest on its hood about 100 feet north of the motorcycle. Hasbrouck had been thrown from Waidler's Mustang and was lying unconscious, suffering from an open head wound and severe chest injuries. Waidler, in shock and hysterical, sustained minor lacerations to his face and hands. Within minutes of the accident, emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene and began treating the three victims. Cinque and Hasbrouck were taken to a hospital in Norwich, where they were pronounced dead on arrival. A helicopter transported the comatose Cloutier to Hartford Hospital. He survived, but sustained severe brain injuries and the loss of his left leg.

The defendant had a brief conversation with Waidler at the accident scene. Shortly thereafter, the police arrived, and the defendant and Benoit spoke with Officer Maurice Remillard of the Plainfield police department. Remillard asked them if they had been involved in the accident, to which the defendant and Benoit responded that they had not. The defendant gave Remillard his name and telephone number, after which Remillard told the defendant that he could go home.

At the defendant's request, some of his friends went to the area to change the flat tire on his Mustang and retrieve the vehicle. Before they could change the tire, the police noticed the deflated tire and the piece of green metal protruding from the tire. The police intervened, impounded the car and arranged for it to be towed from the scene. The police requested that the defendant and Benoit return to the scene, and when they returned, asked them if they had been racing. The defendant gave a written statement, denying that he had been racing at the time of the accident.

After further investigation, the police arrested the defendant.² While in police custody, the defendant gave another statement, in which he stated that, as Waidler passed the defendant's vehicle on Route 12 entering Plainfield, Hasbrouck called to him, "Your car ain't s__t," and that, in the defendant's mind, he began to race with Waidler. He stated that he accelerated to sixty-five miles per hour in second gear. He added that at the intersection of Route 12 and Toper Road, about one mile after the race started, Waidler struck a motorcycle traveling in the opposite direction. "The standard of review we apply to a claim of insufficient evidence is well established. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction we apply a two-part test. First, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict. Second, we determine whether upon the facts so construed and the inferences reasonably drawn therefrom the [finder of fact] reasonably could have concluded that the cumulative force of the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt....

"We note that the jury must find every element proven beyond a reasonable doubt in order to find the defendant guilty of the charged offense, [but] each of the basic and inferred facts underlying those conclusions need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.... If it is reasonable and logical for the jury to conclude that a basic fact or an inferred fact is true, the jury is permitted to consider the fact proven and may consider it in combination with other proven facts in determining whether the cumulative effect of all the evidence proves the defendant guilty of all the elements of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt....

"Finally, [a]s we have often noted, proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all possible doubt... nor does proof beyond a reasonable doubt require acceptance of every hypothesis of innocence posed by the defendant that, had it been found credible by the [finder of fact], would have resulted in an acquittal.... On appeal, we do not ask whether there is a reasonable view of the evidence that would support a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. We ask, instead, whether there is a reasonable view of the evidence that supports the [finder of fact's] verdict of guilty." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Perkins, 271 Conn. 218, 246-47, 856 A.2d 917 (2004).

The state claimed that the defendant's racing with Waidler was criminally negligent conduct that caused the deaths of Cinque and Hasbrouck. The defendant argues that the state failed to establish that his conduct caused the two deaths. He contends that the evidence does not support a finding that he was racing with Waidler at the time of the collision. After reviewing the record and the evidence presented at trial, we disagree with the defendant.

Section 53a-57 provides that "[a] person is guilty of misconduct with a motor vehicle when, with criminal negligence in the operation of a motor vehicle, he causes the death of another person." (Emphasis added.) The definition of criminal negligence set forth in General Statutes § 53a-3 (14) provides that "[a]...