State v. Mayell
| Decision Date | 18 July 1972 |
| Citation | 163 Conn. 419,311 A.2d 60 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. William R. MAYELL. |
Michael C. Hagstrom, Naugatuck, for appellant (defendant).
Thomas F. Wall, State's Atty., for appellee (state).
Before HOUSE, C.J., and RYAN, SHAPIRO, LOISELLE and MacDONALD, JJ.
The defendant was charged with (1) robbery with violence and (2) binding with intent to commit crime. A jury found him guilty of robbery with violence, but not guilty of binding with intent to commit crime. The court subsequently found him to be a second offender under the second part of the information, pursuant to § 54-118 of the General Statutes. The defendant has appealed, assigning error in certain rulings on evidence and the court's denial of his motions to dismiss and set aside the verdict.
The defendant's attack on the court's denial of his motion to set aside the verdict is dispositive of this appeal. The attack is considered by examining the evidence printed in the appendices to the briefs in order to determine whether the jury acted fairly, intelligently and reasonably in rendering its verdict. State v. Shelton, 160 Conn. 360, 361, 278 A.2d 782; State v. Miller, 154 Conn. 622, 624, 228 A.2d 136.
From the evidence offered, the jury could reasonably have found the following facts: On the night of August 21, 1968, Peter Plungis, while in his farmhouse, saw a vehicle stop in a driveway to his home. He turned on an outside light and walked out of his home toward the vehicle. A man sitting in the driver's seat, who appeared to be covering his face with his hands, asked Plungis for directions when Plungis was about thirty-five feet from the house and about fourteen feet from the vehicle. At this point two men, whom Plungis had not seen, brutally attacked Plungis, bound him and rendered him unconscious, causing permanent disability. Plungis' nephew, who lived about a quarter of a mile away, heard 'hollering' and observed unusual activity at his uncle's home and proceeded from his home to investigate. As he approached, the assailants took Plungis' billfold and fled, abandoning their vehicle. Plungis' nephew attended to his uncle's wounds and, with his rifle, fired into the gas tank and at a front tire of the vehicle, disabling it. He then left the premises to call the police. Plungis had approximately $1200 in his wallet; so far as he knew, only those who had made purchases of cattle and hay from him knew that he possessed that amount of cash.
Edward Boker, Inc., Bronx, New York, owned the assailants' vehicle and maintained it for the sole use of Morris Unger, chairman of its board of directors. The company employed the defendant from February 26, 1968, through August 21, 1968, to drive the vehicle. On August 21, 1968, the defendant returned Unger to his home at 6 p.m.; the defendant's duties then required him to garage the automobile at a location directly across the street from the Unger residence on 72nd Street in the city of New York. On the morning of August 22, the Watertown, Connecticut, police informed the president of Edward Boker, Inc., Sidney Schwartzreich, that the company's vehicle was in Watertown. Schwartzreich then inquired at the garage about the vehicle and learned that it had not been returned to the garage on the evening of August 21. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to reach the defendant, either at the defendant's home in the city of New York or at the home of the defendant's mother in the city of Waterbury. The defendant never called for or requested the pay cleck which was due him. On August 22, the defendant called the Unger residence and inquired of a domestic whether Unger was 'mad at him' about the disappearance of the vehicle. Other than this inquiry, the defendant made no report concerning the vehicle. The Watertown police sent out an all-points broadcast that reached thirteen states and indicated that it was looking for the defendant. After August 22, a Watertown police detective attempted to contact the defendant a number of times.
The Boker vehicle was 'dusted' for fingerprints and one clear print was found on the rearview mirror and another print was found superimposed on a third print. The clear fingerprint was identified as belonging to the defendant. On August 29, 1968, a warrant was issued for the arrest of the defendant. In April, 1969, the Watertown police received information from the city of New York as to the whereabouts of the defendant and commenced extradition proceedings. Because of internal difficulties at the Watertown police department, no one appeared for the department at the third extradition hearing in the city of New York or received notice of the decision denying extradition. The defendant was arrested in Waterbury in July, 1969.
The defendant offered evidence to prove the following facts: After leaving Unger at his residence on the evening of August 21, 1968, the defendant went to a cafe near 47th Street in the city of New York. He parked the Boker vehicle at a meter in the vicinity of the cafe and left the keys on the sun visor. He decided to leave the vehicle parked there through the night, as allowed by city parking regulations, because it was 'more convenient' than returning it to the 72nd Street garage where it was supposed to be kept. From the cafe he went to his girl friend's home where he ate, read and watched television. He did not leave his girl friend's home to get the vehicle until 8:10 or 8:15 the following morning. He found that it was not where he had left it and, believing that it had been towed away, he called his girl friend to borrow money to redeem the vehicle. He went to the pound where confiscated vehicles were towed. He was informed that the vehicle was not there. He then called the Unger residence and told a maid that the vehicle had been stolen. Again, at about 4:30 p.m., he called the Unger residence and was told that Unger was angry about the disappearance of the automobile. He decided not to return to work because he knew that he would be fired and he did not think 'it was worth the humiliation' to collect the salary for working three days which was owed to him. He first learned of the crime involved in this case when extradition papers were served; when the extradition was denied, he believed that 'it was all over.' He visited his parents in Connecticut on several occasions and on one occasion, when he appeared at the Waterbury police station to inquire about a driver's license, he was arrested for the crimes charged here. At the time of the trial in January of 1970, the defendant had been a doorman at the Sheraton-Russell Hotel for five months. Before his job at the Sheraton-Russell, he had worked as a doorman at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for six months.
It is the state's claim that the defendant attempted to fabricate an alibi and that such attempt, together with the evidence which the state offered, amply supported the jury verdict convicting the defendant of robbery with violence. The evidence presented by the state was circumstantial; one of the circumstances relied on by the state was the defendant's alleged flight from the scene of the savage beating. Flight, when unexplained, tends to prove a consciousness of guilt. State v. Miller, 154 Conn. 622, 628, 228 A.2d 136; State v. Ford, 109 Conn. 490, 496, 146 A. 828; 1 Wharton, Criminal Evidence (12th Ed.) § 205; 1 Wigmore, Evidence (3d Ed.) § 276. The only evidence which supports this claim is that the defendant drove the Boker vehicle at about 6 p.m. one evening in the city of New York, which vehicle was found abandoned in Connecticut at about midnight with the keys in it; that his employer and a detective tried to contact the defendant at his home and at his mother's home on August 22, 1968; that a thirteen-state alarm was sent out by the police on the same day without any explanatory evidence as to the effect of such an alarm, other than to inform other police departments that the defendant was wanted; that a detective attempted 'a number of times' to contact the defendant, without any evidence as to what he did or the extent of his attempts; and that the defendant resisted extradition seven months later.
Assuming that the jury completely...
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