State v. Palm

• Citation: 123 Conn. 666,197 A. 168
• Court: Supreme Court of Connecticut
• Decision Date: 01 February 1938
• Parties: STATE v. PALM.

197 A. 168

123 Conn. 666

STATE v. PALM.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

February 1, 1938

Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; Ernest A. Inglis Edward J. Quinlan, and Kenneth Wynne, Judges.

John Palm was found guilty under an indictment charging him with the crime of murder in the first degree, and he appeals.

No error.

William M. Harney, of Hartford, for appellant.

Samuel E. Hoyt, State's Atty., and Abrahan S. Ullman, Asst State's Atty., both of New Haven, for the State.

Argued before MALTBIE, C.J., and HINMAN, AVERY, BROWN, and JENNINGS JJ.

AVERY Judge.

Indictment charging the accused with murder in the first degree in having shot to death, while attempting to perpetrate the crime of robbery, Peter W. Kaminski at Milford, on October 3, 1936. The accused pleaded not guilty and elected to be tried by the court instead of by the jury. The court after trial found him guilty of murder in the first degree as charged, and the accused has appealed. In accordance with our practice, the trial court has made a finding of the subordinate facts upon which it based its conclusion that the accused was guilty as charged. State v. Frost, 105 Conn. 326, 330, 135 A. 446; State v. Guilfoyle, 109 Conn. 124, 126, 145 A. 761. The finding is in considerable detail, and in this appeal the accused seeks numerous corrections and additions to the finding for the purpose of destroying the basis upon which the court's ultimate conclusion was founded. The accused also has brought up for review certain rulings of the court made in the course of the trial, and he also raises the general question whether upon the evidence he could be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Among the facts found by the trial court are these: On October 3, 1936, at about 1:30 o'clock in the morning, Peter Kaminski was seated in the driver's seat on the left-hand side of an automobile which was parked at a place known as Gulf Beach in the town of Milford. Seated in the car next to Kaminski and upon his right was Lillian Del Grego, and upon the back seat directly behind Kaminski was seated Neta Shaw and upon her right John Miller. Kaminski was a deputy sheriff in New Haven county and Miller was a court messenger. On the morning of Cotober 2d, the uncontested divorce case of Lillian Del Grego against Joseph Del Grego was heard and Miss Shaw was a witness. While the two women were in the courtroom, Kaminski struck up an acquaintance with them and made an appointment to take them out that evening. Gulf Beach is on Gulf street, which runs southerly from New Haven avenue and along the water front. The car was parked on the beach about one thousand feet west of a brick refreshment stand located on the sand. Other cars were parked east of the stand, but none other than that of Kaminski west of it. The car was facing the water, the moon was full, and the surrounding territory was light. There was an electric light on a pole near where the car was parked and to the rear of it. After Kaminski's car had remained on the beach for some considerable time, a lightcolored car drove up and stopped directly in back of it. The car was observed by Miss Shaw and Miller upon the back seat, who thought it was a police car of the town of Milford. A man got out and came over to the Kaminski car and opened the two doors on the left side. He was dressed in gray clothing, a gray cap, and had a handkerchief covering his face from the bridge of the nose downward. The cap was subsequently found in the home of the accused. On approaching the Kaminski car, the man said, in substance: ‘ Stick them up. This is a stick-up and I'm not fooling.’ At that time he stood at the left front door in front of and very near to Kaminski. As he approached the car he had a gun in his right hand and pointed it at Kaminski. The man then further said, ‘ Hand over your pocketbook.’ Kaminski replied, ‘ You don't know who you are fooling with, I am a deputy sheriff,’ and drew his badge from his pocket. As he did so the man shot Kaminski. The man then came to the back seat and pointed the gun at Miss Shaw and Miller, and said, ‘ There is more where that came from,’ and they handed him their pocketbooks. The wind blew the mask so that part of his face was seen by the two women in Kaminski's car. They also had a view of a large part of the man and noted his distinct eyes, sloping right shoulder, and the tone of his voice. Subsequently they saw the accused in a line-up in the Mount Vernon, N. Y., police station, and identified him as the man who shot Kaminski. The latter was taken to the hospital at Milford immediately after the shooting, but was dead before he arrived. The evidence before the judges was ample to justify them in finding that a robbery was committed and that Kaminski was killed while the robber was attempting to perpetrate that crime and that the robber was guilty of murder in the first degree as charged in the indictment. General Statutes, § 6043, as amended, Gen.St.Supp.1935, § 1685c. Indeed, upon this appeal it is not seriously contended that the crime charged was not committed by someone. The claim of the accused is that the identity of the accused as the robber who did the shooting was not established beyond a reasonable doubt. Of the three persons who were with Kaminski at the time he was shot, the two women were positive at the trial in their identification of the accused as the assassin. Their evidence, even in the printed record, is direct, positive, and certain as to the identity of the accused with the assassin. In the course of their examination they testified in great detail of what occurred that night, described the robbery, and told how they picked out the accused some months afterward from among a number of prisoners whom they saw at Mount Vernon, N.Y. They were subjected at the trial to a most searching cross-examination, and their evidence was not shaken or weakened in any material respect. The testimony of Miller in no essential respect differed from the testimony of the two women, except that he was not positive as to the identity of the accused as the assassin, although he stated that the voice of the accused which he had heard in the courtroom resembled the voice of the assassin. In addition to the facts established by direct evidence to which we have referred, there were circumstances in the evidence of the state which tended to confirm the proof of guilt of the accused. While the accused was in Milford, his mother, Mrs. Gove, owned a Dodge four-door sedan light bronze in color. The car owned by Mrs. Gove subsequent to the shooting was seen on February 12, 1937, in a garage in Mount Vernon, N. Y., where the accused lived; and, a few days later, was removed to a garage in Yonkers, N. Y., and it was there found and identified by the witnesses Del Grego and Shaw as the car that stood in back of the Kaminski car on Gulf Beach and from which the accused had come prior to the shooting.

The accused was twenty-five years of age. On May 15, 1936, he was released on parole from Sing Sing Prison, to which he had been sentenced for the crime of attempt at robbery, being paroled to the custody of his mother, conditioned to his living with her at Milford. From that date until November 23, 1936, he resided on Thompson street, Milford, in a house owned by his mother about two miles and a half from the place where the homicide occurred. Adjacent to the house occupied by the accused with his mother was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ward D. Pease and their son, James. The car belonging to Mrs. Gove was frequently driven by the accused and was usually kept in a driveway between the home of the accused and the house next door. On the morning of October 3d, this car was seen by the Pease family parked in the rear of the Gove house out of sight of the highway.

Gulf street intersected New Haven avenue at a point about one-half mile from the beach where the homicide occurred. On October 3d, at 1:30 or 1:35 in the morning, a light-colored car was seen driving westerly on New Haven avenue coming from the point where it is intersected by Gulf street. This car had a spare tire on the fender well and on the right side were dual tail lights, and a trunk carrier or a luggage carrier in the rear, as did the car of Mrs. Gove.

On the day the accused was presented in court at Mount Vernon, he waived extradition and was brought back to New Haven by police officers. While returning with the officers he stated to them: ‘ You know I was in the Town of Milford the night of the shooting affair at Gulf Beach. The next day I heard reports on the radio. Do you know I fit that description all but half an inch in height and that my car answered the description and that I laid low for one week.’ He was then asked by the officer: ‘ Well if it wasn't you, why didn't you give yourself up to the chief of police in Milford?’ To which he replied: ‘ Well, my record is bad and they would hold it against me.’ The accused testified before the coroner of New Haven county that he heard of the murder on the radio or read of it in the newspapers and stated, in response to the question of the coroner, ‘ What did that mean to you?’ as follows: ‘ It meant to me There is me. I am an ex-convict. It would be a nice thing if I happened to get...