State v. Phillips

• Decision Date: 31 July 2007
• Docket Number: No. 25281.,25281.
• Citation: 102 Conn.App. 716,927 A.2d 931
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Dowen D. PHILLIPS.

927 A.2d 931

102 Conn.App. 716

STATE of Connecticut v. Dowen D. PHILLIPS.

No. 25281.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued October 10, 2006.

Decided July 31, 2007.

Matthew J. Collins, special public defender, for the appellant (defendant).

John A. East III, senior assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were James E. Thomas, state's attorney, and Sandra L. Tullius, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

SCHALLER, DiPENTIMA and McLACHLAN, Js.

DiPENTIMA, J.

In all criminal prosecutions, the defendant has the right to a trial by an impartial jury. U.S. Const., amend. VI; Conn. Const., art. I, § 8. Allegations of racial bias on the part of jury members strike at the heart of that right. In this appeal, we primarily address the claim by the defendant, Dowen D. Phillips, that the trial court improperly denied his motion for a new trial following a hearing that revealed evidence of possible racial bias on the part of a juror.

Our reading of State v. Santiago, 245 Conn. 301, 336, 715 A.2d 1 (1998), in which our Supreme Court instructed that evidence of racial bias is ipso facto prejudicial, as well as the long-standing precedent preventing any intrusion into the deliberations of the jury, leads us to conclude that the trial court applied an improper legal standard to the defendant's motion. The court improperly based its denial of the defendant's motion on its conclusion that the defendant had not suffered actual prejudice because there was no evidence that anything improper had affected the jury's verdict. Instead, the court should have restricted its inquiry of the jury to a solicitation of objective facts relating to the allegations, including statements heard and conduct observed, and should not have inquired into the effect of those facts on each juror's deliberations. The court should then have made an independent determination as to whether the evidence before it revealed racial bias on the part of a juror. Accordingly, we remand the case for a determination on the defendant's motion for a new trial as to whether there was racial bias on the part of a juror against the defendant. If the court does find that a juror is racially biased, through speech or conduct, such conduct is ipso facto prejudicial and the defendant is entitled to a new trial. The defendant additionally claims that the court improperly admitted evidence of his prior convictions and youthful offender status. With respect to those claims, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On April 11, 2001, Linda Young left the Brian Thomas Candy and Tobacco Company in West Hartford, which she owned and operated with her husband, intending to deposit the daily receipts at Farmington Savings Bank. The deposit bag contained more than $26,000 in cash and more than $80,000 in checks. As she was walking across the parking lot toward her car, a man approached and ripped the bag of money from her, knocking her to the pavement in the process. The robber ran down the street and got into the passenger seat of a green Plymouth Caravan. The police tracked down the driver of the Plymouth, who claimed that the defendant was the robber and had offered him $300 to act as the getaway driver. The defendant was arrested on June 21, 2001 and subsequently released on a $30,000 bond. The defendant was scheduled to appear in court on August 1, 2001. He was not present in court when his case was called on that date. The court recalled his bond and issued a rearrest order. The defendant was rearrested on October 17, 2001.

The defendant was charged in a six count amended information with robbery in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-136, larceny in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-122(a)(2), conspiracy to commit robbery in the third degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-48 and 53a-136, conspiracy to commit larceny in the first degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-48 and 53a-122(a)(2), larceny in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-123(a)(3) and failure to appear in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-172(a)(1). The defendant elected to be tried by jury, which was comprised of six members. Following eight days of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on the failure to appear count. With respect to the other counts, no verdict was returned and a mistrial was declared.

On March 18, 2003, the defendant filed a motion for an evidentiary hearing concerning jury misconduct on the basis of mistake of fact, which was denied on April 8, 2003. The defendant amended his claims on the same day to include jury racial bias. The court held evidentiary hearings on that issue on April 29 and May 7, 2003. The court conducted an extensive inquiry of the juror reporting the conduct, of the juror alleged to have made racist remarks and also of the four other jury members who would have witnessed the alleged conduct. The hearings were on the record and each juror testified outside the presence of the other jury members. Included in the court's questions was whether anything inappropriate transpired during the deliberations and whether anything inappropriate influenced the jurors' verdict.

Four of the jurors testified that they believed juror B¹ to be racially prejudiced against the defendant, who is a black man.

Juror H, a black man, testified that juror B, a white man, made racist remarks to him. Juror H also reported that juror B told him that "when he saw [the defendant] he made up his mind that [the defendant] was guilty because of his demeanor. . . . He said when he first saw [the defendant], he knew — he knew that he was guilty." According to juror H, juror B made reference to the fact that a person alleged to be part of the crime was Puerto Rican and to the way that "those people treat their women," and also made a comment to one of the jurors of Vietnamese origin.² Juror B also asked juror H why he had big feet. Juror H stated that juror B was very difficult to interact with and that it reached the point where juror H did not want to attend court any longer. In response to the judge's question whether juror B's conduct influenced his verdict, juror H stated, "yes, trying to get him to see the other part of the case." He also said that "it was a compromise on my behalf."

Juror K, another black member of the jury, testified that he believed that juror B was racist. He said, "you didn't hear the word nigger in that room, but you could feel it."

Juror M, the jury foreperson, testified that juror B made inappropriate comments of a racial nature during deliberations, including asking the black jurors questions that did not belong in the jury room, questions that he did not ask of the other jurors. Juror M also testified that juror B's particular racial bias against the defendant presented some confusion in the room that may have affected the jurors' ability to deliberate openly and fairly. Juror M said, "I think that we came to the decision that we could no longer go forward [and that] was because of the . . . I believe and we all believe . . . the racial bias by [juror B] in the room."

Juror R confirmed that one of the jurors made racially motivated comments and that his conduct caused the other jury members to ask him whether "he had racial problems."

When he testified at the postverdict hearing, juror B acknowledged the racial overtones throughout the jury's deliberations. He testified that two members of the jury called him a racist. He said that during deliberations, he commented about the defendant's demeanor at a certain stage in the trial and that as a result, "I was told I was a racist because black people and people of minority are more apt to demonstrate with their hands and to say things like that." Juror B also believed that indirect threats were made to him. Juror B testified that juror K at one point said "something along the lines [of], `Boy, if this was a basketball game, I'd beat the shit out of him,' or something like that."

Juror C did not remember anything inappropriate transpiring in the jury room.

Following the hearings, the court issued a memorandum of decision in which it found all of the jurors' testimony to be credible. It then went on to hold that "there is no evidence that any comments attributed to [juror B] compromised the jury in any way" and that "there is nothing in the evidence to suggest that their individual verdict was based on anything other than the facts and the law." The court therefore denied the defendant's motion for a new trial, which alleged juror racial bias. On January 9, 2004, the defendant was sentenced to five years imprisonment, execution suspended after three years, to be followed by a five year period of probation. This appeal followed.

I

The defendant claims on appeal that the court improperly denied his motion for a new trial, which alleged jury racial bias. The standard of review in an appeal challenging a ruling on juror misconduct is well settled. "We have limited our role, on appeal, to a consideration of whether the trial court's review of alleged jury misconduct can fairly be characterized as an abuse of its discretion. . . . Even with this circumscribed role, we have reserved the right to find an abuse of discretion in the highly unusual case in which such an abuse has occurred. . . . The trial judge's discretion, which is a legal discretion, should be exercised in conformity with the spirit of the law and in a manner to subserve and not to impede or defeat the ends of substantial justice." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Brown, 235 Conn. 502, 524 668 A.2d 1288 (1995); see also State v. Santiago, supra, 245 Conn. at 336, 715 A.2d 1.

"Jury impartiality is a core requirement of the right to trial by jury guaranteed by the constitution of Connecticut, article first, § 8,...