State v. Patrick M.
| Citation | 344 Conn. 565,280 A.3d 461 |
| Decision Date | 02 September 2022 |
| Docket Number | SC 20476 |
| Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. PATRICK M. |
| Court | Supreme Court of Connecticut |
Emily H. Wagner, assistant public defender, for the appellant (defendant).
Jonathan M. Sousa, deputy assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Brian W. Preleski, state's attorney, and Brett J. Salafia, executive assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
Robinson, C. J., and McDonald, D'Auria, Mullins, Kahn, Ecker and Keller, Js.
The defendant, Patrick M., was convicted of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a (a) and criminal possession of a firearm in violation of General Statutes § 53a-217 (a) (1) in connection with the death of his wife, Y. On appeal, the defendant raises four claims: (1) the evidence was insufficient to establish his identity as the perpetrator of the crimes of conviction; (2) the prosecutor violated the proscriptions set forth in Doyle v. Ohio , 426 U.S. 610, 96 S. Ct. 2240, 49 L. Ed. 2d 91 (1976), by improperly commenting on the defendant's invocation of his right to remain silent following his arrest and advisement of rights pursuant to Miranda v. Arizona , 384 U.S. 436, 86 S. Ct. 1602, 16 L. Ed. 2d 694 (1966) ; (3) the prosecutor's comments during closing argument on the defendant's post- Miranda silence and pretrial incarceration constituted prosecutorial improprieties that deprived the defendant of his due process right to a fair trial; and (4) the trial court improperly admitted evidence of the defendant's prior uncharged misconduct in violation of our rules of evidence. We conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant's conviction but that the prosecutor improperly commented on the defendant's post- Miranda silence. We therefore reverse the conviction and remand the case for a new trial.
The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. The defendant and Y were married in 2015 and had one child together, P. Their relationship was tumultuous and plagued by infidelity. The defendant had a series of extramarital affairs with various women, and, by 2017, Y was in a sexual relationship with her former girlfriend, Kye Jones. The defendant, who did not approve of Y and Jones’ relationship, at one point threatened to kill Y1 and, on a different occasion, also threatened Jones with a gun, yelling at her, "I told you I ain't no punk."
On April 7, 2017, the defendant, Y, and P, who was two years old at the time, lived in a second floor apartment in New Britain. Their neighbor, M, lived in the apartment directly below them. On the night of April 7, M arrived home at approximately 9 p.m. Less than an hour later, M heard "a lot of ruckus coming from upstairs," which she characterized as fighting, yelling, and bodies being tossed around. M called 911, and the police arrived shortly thereafter, at 10:05 p.m.
The police knocked on the locked door of Y's apartment, but there was no answer. After speaking to M, the police decided to force entry into the apartment. Inside, they found Y in the master bedroom face down in a pool of blood. Attempts to revive Y were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. A subsequent autopsy revealed the cause of Y's death to be multiple gunshot wounds to the head and that the manner of her death was a homicide.2
The police searched the apartment, but neither the child nor anyone else was there. Inside the master bedroom, the police discovered multiple nine millimeter shell casings and bullet fragments. There also was evidence of a struggle: a blood like substance was found on the bed, and Y was wearing only one shoe. The search also resulted in the seizure of multiple cell phones, narcotics, packaging materials, and approximately $2900 in cash.
Given the nature of the initial 911 call as a domestic disturbance, the police focused their efforts on locating the defendant and P. When those efforts yielded no results, an Amber Alert was issued, insofar as P was "a missing child [who was] in danger because there was a homicide." The Amber Alert also warned that the defendant was "considered dangerous" and should be approached with "extreme caution." The police later located P at the home of the defendant's sister in Brooklyn, New York. The defendant's sister informed the police that the defendant had stopped by unannounced on the morning of April 8, 2017, and told her to "take care of [his] daughter." On that same date, the defendant also called Y's aunt and said to her,
The defendant was found on April 11, 2017, in Massachusetts. He was arrested and charged with murder and criminal possession of a firearm. The defendant elected a jury trial on the murder charge and a bench trial on the criminal possession of a firearm charge.
At trial, the jury heard testimony from Dwayne Watson, who was familiar with the defendant through Y's sister, with whom he had a child. Watson testified that he saw the defendant on the afternoon of April 7, 2017, picking up P after school in a gray Chevrolet Malibu. Watson also saw the defendant later that evening in Hartford in the same gray vehicle. The jury also heard testimony from Daniel Thomas, an associate of the defendant's. Thomas testified that he went with the defendant to pick up P after school on the afternoon of the day of the murder in a silver Chevrolet Malibu, which was registered and insured in the name of Thomas’ mother. Thomas spent a couple of hours with the defendant and P and then went home.
Later that night, Thomas learned that Y had been shot and killed. Thomas subsequently received a phone call from the defendant, in which the defendant asked him "what was going on out there." Thomas responded that "people [were] saying that you killed your girl," and the defendant replied, The defendant also said that "he probably wasn't going to see his daughter."
The defendant texted Thomas again during the early morning hours the following day and asked him to look up "[h]ow much time do you get." Thomas told the defendant to park the Chevrolet Malibu and to "take the plates off so [his] mother won't be a part of [a criminal investigation]." The defendant asked Thomas to pick up the car in Brooklyn. Thomas drove to Brooklyn, where he and a friend picked up the Chevrolet Malibu and the defendant's cell phone. They delivered the Chevrolet Malibu to the home of Thomas’ mother, but Thomas kept the cell phone in his possession. On cross-examination, Thomas admitted that he currently was incarcerated as a result of a conviction for the sale of narcotics and that, prior to his incarceration, he was "a drug runner" for the defendant. He explained that he kept the defendant's cell "phone because [he] wanted to wrap up any loose ends [regarding] drug deals."
The state adduced video surveillance footage showing a vehicle matching the description of the gray Chevrolet Malibu driving through an intersection near Y's apartment at approximately 10 p.m. on the day of the murder. Additionally, cameras operated by the city of New York captured images of the Chevrolet Malibu's license plate in various areas of New York a few hours later, between 1 and 2:30 a.m. on April 8, 2017.
The defendant testified in his own defense. The defendant admitted that he was a drug dealer and a convicted felon. He explained that, as a drug dealer, he drove many cars, one of which was the Chevrolet Malibu owned by Thomas’ mother. The defendant testified that, on the afternoon of April 7, 2017, he drove the Chevrolet Malibu to pick up his daughter from school at approximately 3 p.m. Thomas accompanied the defendant and returned with him and P to the apartment in New Britain for two or three hours. Sometime thereafter, the defendant left the apartment with P to go to Hartford to purchase "some weed." According to the defendant, he did not drive the Chevrolet Malibu to Hartford. Instead, he drove a blue Acura because he "needed to bring money to New York" and the Acura "had a stash box," or "a hidden compartment under the seat."
The defendant testified that he returned to his New Britain apartment with P at approximately 9 p.m. He noticed that Y's truck was parked in the parking lot and that the door to his apartment was open. When the defendant entered the apartment, he realized that a large amount of cash and illicit drugs were missing. The defendant placed P on the couch and searched the apartment. In the master bedroom, he found Y dead on the floor. In panic and fear, the defendant "grabbed [P] and ran out the door" of the apartment. In order to "[get P] to safety," the defendant fled in the blue Acura to his sister's home in New York.
According to the defendant, he received a phone call from Thomas on the way to New York, in which Thomas informed him that "[his] wife got killed and they saying [that he] did it." The defendant also received notice of the Amber Alert, which described him as "[a]rmed and dangerous ...." Because he was a suspect in Y's murder, the defendant was afraid to contact the police. Instead, he dropped P off at his sister's house and arranged to have Thomas pick him up in Brooklyn. Thomas arrived to pick him up in the Chevrolet Malibu and then drove the defendant to a girlfriend's house in New London. The defendant stayed in New London for two days, after which Thomas drove him to Massachusetts in the Chevrolet Malibu. The police arrested the defendant in Massachusetts one and one-half days later.
On the basis of the foregoing evidence, the jury found the defendant guilty of murder, and the trial court found the defendant guilty of criminal possession of a firearm. The trial court rendered judgment in accordance with the jury's verdict and the court's finding, and sentenced the defendant to fifty-five years of incarceration.3 This direct appeal followed.
The defendant first claims that the evidence was insufficient to support...
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