State v. Rice

• Decision Date: 25 December 2007
• Docket Number: No. 28465.,28465.
• Citation: 936 A.2d 694,105 Conn.App. 103
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Jerome RICE.

936 A.2d 694

105 Conn.App. 103

STATE of Connecticut v. Jerome RICE.

No. 28465.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued October 23, 2007.

Decided December 25, 2007.

Mary Anne Royle, special public defender, for the appellant (defendant).

Michele C. Lukban, senior assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were John A. Connelly, state's attorney, and Eva B. Lenczewski, supervisory assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

FLYNN, C.J., and HARPER and PETERS, Js.

FLYNN, C.J.

The defendant, Jerome Rice, appeals from the judgment of conviction, following a trial by jury, of one count of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a(a). On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court improperly (1) denied his motion for a judgment of acquittal for insufficient evidence where the state failed to establish the essential element of intent to kill and (2) denied his motion to suppress his signed confession where it was not knowingly and voluntarily given because he had not slept for two days and had been under the undue influence of alcohol when he signed it. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The following facts reasonably could have been found by the jury. On October 23, 2003, the defendant, accompanied by his friend, Frank Orr, drove from the defendant's home in New York to Waterbury to see his son and his son's mother, Tosha McClashie. After arriving, Norris McClashie, Tosha McClashie's brother, who also was a friend of the defendant, asked the defendant and Orr to go out on the town with him so that he could purchase some marijuana. They took the defendant's automobile. Sometime after they left the house, the defendant removed his Taurus nine millimeter handgun from the trunk of his automobile and placed it into his jacket pocket. While driving around in the automobile, the three men drank some forty ounce beers and may have shared a marijuana cigarette. They stopped at a few locations before ending up at Buddies Billiards (Buddies). While at Buddies, Norris McClashie (McClashie) was approached by his friend, Jose Lopez, who asked McClashie for a ride home. McClashie asked the defendant if they could drop Lopez off at home, and the defendant agreed. When they left Buddies, at approximately 12:30 a.m. on the morning of October 24, the defendant and Orr sat in the front seat, and McClashie and Lopez sat in the backseat of the defendant's automobile. At some point during the ride, Lopez took out some cocaine and asked McClashie if he wanted some. The defendant became very angry and told Lopez that he did not want drugs in his automobile, and Lopez gave the defendant a sarcastic response. Shortly thereafter, Lopez asked the defendant to stop the automobile because he had to relieve himself. The defendant stopped, and Lopez walked to the rear of the automobile. The defendant exited the vehicle and walked behind the vehicle as well. McClashie then heard two bangs, and the defendant returned to the driver's seat. When the defendant began to drive away, McClashie asked the defendant what had happened and if he had shot Lopez. The defendant did not respond. McClashie asked the defendant to return to the scene to get Lopez and take him to a hospital, but the defendant again said nothing. The defendant drove normally and took McClashie home, telling him not to say anything about what had transpired. The defendant and Orr then drove back to New York. McClashie telephoned the defendant later in the day and asked him if Lopez was dead, and the defendant stated that he had shot Lopez in the chest and in the head. McClashie then asked the defendant why he had shot Lopez, and the defendant responded that he had never liked Lopez.

Later in the evening, McClashie gave a statement to the police. A warrant was issued for the defendant's arrest, and members of the Waterbury police department went to New York to execute the warrant. During the night of October 25, 2003, at approximately 11:30 p.m., the defendant was arrested at his New York apartment, where the police also found the gun that was used to kill Lopez. The police took the defendant to the 105th precinct in New York City. Within approximately twenty minutes, the defendant confessed to shooting Lopez and signed a written confession. He was returned to Connecticut to face trial. The defendant was tried, found guilty by the jury and was sentenced to fifty-three years imprisonment, with three years of special probation. This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth where necessary.

I

The defendant first claims that the court improperly denied his motion for a judgment of acquittal, in which he claimed that the state presented insufficient evidence to prove that he had the necessary intent to shoot and kill Lopez. He argues that the evidence demonstrated that he was intoxicated at the time of the shooting and that he had smoked marijuana, which negated the element of intent. We disagree.

"The standard of review we apply to a claim of insufficient evidence is well established. In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction we apply a two-part test. First, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to sustaining the verdict. Second, we determine whether upon the facts so construed and the inferences reasonably drawn therefrom the [finder of fact] reasonably could have concluded that the cumulative force of the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt....

"We note that the jury must find every element proven beyond a reasonable doubt in order to find the defendant guilty of the charged offense, [but] each of the basic and inferred facts underlying those conclusions need not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.... If it is reasonable and logical for the jury to conclude that a basic fact or an inferred fact is true, the jury is permitted to consider the fact proven and may consider it in combination with other proven facts in determining whether the cumulative effect of all the evidence proves the defendant guilty of all the elements of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt....

"Moreover, it does not diminish the probative force of the evidence that it consists, in whole or in part, of evidence that is circumstantial rather than direct.... It is not one fact, but the cumulative impact of a multitude of facts which establishes guilt in a case involving substantial circumstantial evidence.... In evaluating evidence, the [finder] of fact is not required to accept as dispositive those inferences that are consistent with the defendant's innocence.... The [finder of fact] may draw whatever inferences from the evidence or facts established by the evidence it deems to be reasonable and logical....

"Finally, [a]s we have often noted, proof beyond a reasonable doubt does not mean proof beyond all possible doubt ... nor does proof beyond a reasonable doubt require acceptance of every hypothesis of innocence posed by the defendant that, had it been found credible by the [finder of fact], would have resulted in an acquittal.... On appeal, we do not ask whether there is a reasonable view of the evidence that would support a reasonable hypothesis of innocence. We ask, instead, whether there is a reasonable view of the evidence that supports the [finder of fact's] verdict of guilty." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Calabrese, 279 Conn. 393, 402-403, 902 A.2d 1044 (2006).

To establish a violation of § 53a-54a, the crime of murder, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant, "with intent to cause the death of another person ... cause[d] the death of such person or of a third person...." General Statutes § 53a-54a(a). As our Supreme Court reiterated in State v. Gary, 273 Conn. 393, 869 A.2d 1236 (2005), "[t]he specific intent to kill is an essential element of the crime of murder. To act intentionally, the defendant must have had the conscious objective to cause the death of the victim.... Because direct evidence of the accused's state of mind is rarely available ... intent is often inferred from conduct ... and from the cumulative effect of the circumstantial evidence and the rational inferences drawn therefrom.... Intent to cause death may be inferred from the type of weapon used, the manner in which it was used, the type of wound inflicted and the events leading to and immediately following the death.... Furthermore, it is a permissible, albeit not a necessary or mandatory, inference that a defendant intended the natural consequences of his voluntary conduct.... In addition, intent to kill may be inferred from evidence that the defendant had a motive to kill." (Citations omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., at 406-407, 869 A.2d 1236.

Here, the defendant argues that there was insufficient evidence of his intent to kill because he was intoxicated due to alcohol and marijuana at the time he shot Lopez. "Intoxication, as used in General Statutes § 53a-7, means a substantial disturbance of mental or physical capacities resulting from the introduction of substances into the body.... [Although] intoxication is neither a defense nor an affirmative defense to a murder charge in Connecticut, evidence of a defendant's intoxication is relevant to negate specific intent which is an essential element of the crime of murder.... Intoxication, however, does not automatically negate intent.... It is for the jury to decide, after weighing all the evidence adduced at trial, whether a criminal defendant's intoxication rendered him incapable of forming the intent required to commit the crime with which he is charged." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. LaSalle, 95 Conn.App. 263, 271, 897 A.2d 101, cert. denied, 279 Conn. 908, 901 A.2d 1227 (2006).

In the case at bar, McClashie testified that on the night of the murder, he, the defendant and Orr were drinking some forty ounce beers while they drove around in the...