State v. Pratt, 14926

• Decision Date: 26 December 1995
• Docket Number: No. 14926,14926
• Citation: 669 A.2d 562,235 Conn. 595
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Robert PRATT, Jr.

Page 562

669 A.2d 562

235 Conn. 595

STATE of Connecticut v. Robert PRATT, Jr.

No. 14926.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Sept. 20, 1995.

Decided Dec. 26, 1995.

Susann E. Gill, Assistant State's Attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Donald A. Browne, State's Attorney, and Jonathan C. Benedict, Assistant State's Attorney, for the appellee (state).

Before CALLAHAN, BORDEN, NORCOTT, KATZ and PALMER, JJ.

NORCOTT, Justice.

After a jury trial, the defendant, Robert Pratt, Jr., was found guilty of one count each of felony murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54c, ¹ manslaughter in the first degree by reckless indifference in violation of General Statutes § 53a-55(a)(3) ² and carrying a pistol without a permit in violation of General Statutes § 29-35. ³ The trial court combined the felony murder and manslaughter convictions into a single murder conviction ⁴ and imposed a thirty-five year sentence. The court also imposed a five year consecutive sentence on the weapons conviction, for a total effective sentence of forty years. The defendant appeals from these judgments. ⁵

On appeal, he claims that the trial court improperly: (1) denied his request for access to and the opportunity to elicit testimony regarding a key state witness' juvenile records; (2) denied his request for access to that same witness' juvenile court psychological and psychiatric records; and (3) instructed the jury regarding the process of drawing inferences from circumstantial evidence in violation of the defendant's federal and state constitutional guarantees of due process. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. During the early afternoon of June 29, 1992, David O'Hare was shot and killed while attempting to deliver a pizza to 99 Grant Street in Bridgeport on behalf of his employer, Stratford Pizza. On the day of the shooting, the defendant telephoned Stratford Pizza from the apartment of his girlfriend, Shakira Montgomery, located on Shelton Street in Bridgeport, and placed an order, and because Stratford Pizza was reluctant to deliver to Montgomery's Shelton Street address, the defendant requested that the order be delivered to 99 Grant Street. The defendant left the apartment in order to pick up the delivery but returned approximately thirty minutes later, telling Montgomery that the deliveryman had not appeared. The defendant called Stratford Pizza to inquire concerning the delivery and was told that O'Hare was just about to leave. The defendant again left to accept the pizza delivery, this time accompanied by two young men, Reggie Boyd and Cameron Graham, both of whom were fourteen years old. Ultimately, the group confronted O'Hare as he sat in his parked car in front of 99 Grant Street. In an attempt to rob O'Hare, the defendant produced a handgun, pointed it at O'Hare and shot him as he attempted to drive away.

After the shooting, the three youths split up and fled. The defendant returned to Montgomery's apartment and called Stratford Pizza to request that the delivery be cancelled. During the call, Atixhe Zeko, an employee of Stratford Pizza, informed the defendant that the delivery should have been made long ago. Later, after the police had informed Zeko that O'Hare had been shot, Zeko called the defendant and asked whether the pizza order had in fact been delivered. The defendant replied with an answer that sounded like "yes." Zeko then informed the defendant that the deliveryman had been shot, at which point the defendant quickly hung up.

Later that day, the three young men who had confronted O'Hare were at Montgomery's apartment. Also present in the apartment were Kevidous "Kiki" McCray, Earl "June" Atkins and two of Montgomery's cousins, Tremayne O'Brien and Keyanna Hill. While Boyd, Graham and the defendant argued about the shooting, Graham called the defendant "stupid" for having shot O'Hare. The defendant said that he shot O'Hare because the victim would not give him the money and was trying to "test" him. The defendant, however, had also told Montgomery that the gun "went off" when his hand jerked after O'Hare drove over his foot in an attempt to escape.

The following day, the police questioned Boyd and informed him that the defendant had identified him as the shooter. Boyd subsequently gave a sworn statement identifying the defendant as the shooter. Throughout the course of trial, one of the theories put forth by the defendant was that it was Boyd, not he who had shot O'Hare.

No murder weapon was ever found, but ballistics tests conducted by the state indicated that a rather uncommon, top-loading, .380 caliber Grendel semiautomatic pistol was among the possible murder weapons. At trial, Montgomery testified that on the day of the shooting, the defendant had possessed a top loading handgun.

I

The defendant first claims that the trial court's refusal (1) to order discovery of the juvenile arrest records of Boyd and (2) to allow the defendant to elicit testimony regarding the details of an arrest documented therein, violated his federal and state constitutional rights of confrontation ⁶ and, consequently, his rights to present a defense, to due process and to a fair trial. We disagree.

The following additional facts are relevant to this claim. Prior to trial, in August, 1992, the trial court, Gormley, J., had denied the defendant's motion for discovery and inspection of the juvenile and youthful offender records of arrests, convictions or pending cases for all the state's witnesses. Again, prior to trial, in January, 1993, Boyd was arrested in connection with a car chase that culminated in his pointing a loaded Grendel .380 caliber semiautomatic pistol at Greenwich police officer Pam Gustovich. ⁷ After learning of this event, the defendant filed a supplemental motion for discovery, specifically requesting all information in the state's possession relating to Boyd's arrest by the Greenwich police in January, 1993. His request also included all other information relating to Boyd tending to exculpate the defendant, namely, felony convictions, prior bad acts tending to show a lack of veracity, pending criminal charges, and evidence of any other acts similar to the homicide in the present case that might be considered "signature" offenses.

The trial court who heard the defendant's supplemental discovery motion, Damiani, J., denied the defendant's request for access to Boyd's juvenile arrest records, having determined that Boyd had subsequently possessed and used the same make of weapon as that used in shooting O'Hare was not relevant to the issue of whether the defendant had shot O'Hare. The court found that the evidence did not rise to the level required to characterize the two incidents as signature offenses, and because it was remote and irrelevant, the court refused to order its disclosure. The court noted, however, that if, in fact, Boyd did testify, the defendant would receive copies of his felony convictions and would be allowed to cross-examine him regarding prior bad acts and pending criminal charges.

At trial, the defendant notified the court that he intended to call Gustovich as a witness for the purpose of establishing that Boyd had possessed a Grendel pistol six months after the shooting of the victim in the present case. The state responded with a motion in limine, claiming that the evidence was irrelevant. During arguments on the motion, the defendant conceded that the Grendel pistol involved in the Greenwich incident was not the murder weapon, and also that he was not offering the evidence to impeach Boyd's credibility on a collateral matter. ⁸ The defendant instead argued that Boyd's possession of a Grendel .380 pistol six months after the shooting was relevant to the issue of whether he had been in possession of the pistol used in the shooting in the present case, based on the fact that a Grendel is an uncommon make of pistol. The trial court, Maiocco, J., determined that this evidence was remote, irrelevant and without probative value. Accordingly, the trial court refused to allow the defendant to elicit testimony from Gustovich regarding Boyd's possession of a Grendel pistol during the Greenwich incident.

On appeal, the defendant claims that these rulings, denying him access to Boyd's juvenile arrest records and denying him the opportunity to elicit testimony regarding Boyd's arrest for possession of a Grendel pistol in January, 1993, in the Greenwich incident, violated his constitutional right of confrontation. He argued that the rulings impermissibly limited his rights to elicit testimony relevant to Boyd's bias and motive. We note at the outset that the defendant did not raise this theory of relevance at trial. With regard to his pretrial supplemental discovery motion, the defendant argued to the court only that the Greenwich incident was relevant as a signature crime. In arguing the admissibility of testimony concerning this incident at trial, however, the defendant claimed only that because the Grendel is an unusual make of pistol, the incident was relevant to show that Boyd may have possessed the Grendel used to murder O'Hare. This latter theory appears to be a reformulation of the signature crime argument advanced prior to trial. ⁹ On appeal, for the first time, he argues that Boyd's involvement in the Greenwich incident is relevant to his motive or his bias to testify falsely concerning the defendant's involvement in the shooting in the present case.

We will not ordinarily review a trial court's evidentiary rulings on grounds not raised in the trial court. See State v. Braman, 191 Conn. 670, 684-85, 469 A.2d 760 (1983); State v. Manning, 162 Conn. 112, 118, 291 A.2d 750 (1971). The defendant, however, seeks to prevail under State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 567 A.2d 823 (1989). In accordance with State v. Golding, supra, at 239-40, 567 A.2d 823, a defendant may prevail on an unpreserved claim of...