State v. Ruocco
Decision Date | 06 September 2016 |
Docket Number | No. 19387.,19387. |
Citation | 322 Conn. 796,144 A.3d 354 |
Parties | STATE of Connecticut v. Dustin RUOCCO. |
Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Jennifer F. Miller, deputy assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Michael Dearington, state's attorney, and Marc G. Ramia, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellant (state).
Alice Osedach, assistant public defender, with whom, on the brief, was Katrina Cessna, certified legal intern, for the appellee (defendant).
ROGERS, C.J., and PALMER, ZARELLA, EVELEIGH, McDONALD, ESPINOSA and ROBINSON, Js.
After a jury found the defendant, Dustin Ruocco, guilty of burglary in the third degree and larceny in the third degree, the Appellate Court reversed his conviction upon concluding that it was plain error for the trial court not to instruct the jury, as mandated by General Statutes § 54–84(b),1 that it may draw no unfavorable inferences from the defendant's failure to testify. State v. Ruocco, 151 Conn.App. 732, 744, 754, 95 A.3d 573 (2014). We granted the state's petition for certification to appeal, limited to the issue of whether the Appellate Court properly reversed the defendant's conviction under the plain error doctrine. State v. Ruocco, 314 Conn. 923, 100 A.3d 854 (2014). We affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.
The opinion of the Appellate Court, as supplemented by the record, sets forth the following facts that the jury reasonably could have found. “The defendant and his girlfriend, Denise Cintron, rented a basement apartment from Thomas Blake in East Haven. Blake's property is immediately adjacent to property owned by Donald Gennette (Donald) and Maria Gennette (Maria). There is a shed in the backyard of the Gennettes' property located approximately twenty feet from the Gennette–Blake property line.
(Footnotes omitted.) State v. Ruocco, supra, 151 Conn.App. at 735–38, 95 A.3d 573.
At the conclusion of the evidentiary portion of the trial, the court instructed the jury on the governing legal principles. Although the defense made no contrary request, the trial court did not instruct the jury, as required by § 54–84(b), that it could draw no unfavorable inferences from the defendant's failure to testify. Thereafter, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on both counts, and the trial court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict.
The defendant appealed to the Appellate Court, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court's failure to instruct the jury in accordance with § 54–84(b) was plain error entitling him to a new trial. The Appellate Court agreed, stating in relevant part: 2 (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., at 743–44, 95 A.3d 573, quoting State v. Suplicki, 33 Conn.App. 126, 130, 634 A.2d 1179 (1993), cert. denied, 229 Conn. 920, 642 A.2d 1216 (1994).
On appeal, the state contends that the Appellate Court incorrectly determined that the total omission of the statutorily required no adverse inference instruction was not subject to harmless error analysis. The state further maintains that, if the Appellate Court had undertaken such an analysis, as it was required to do, it would have recognized that the defendant was not prejudiced by the omission of the required instruction because “the balance of the instructions facilitated the appropriate application of the law” and because the evidence of the defendant's guilt was so overwhelming that the verdict would have been the same even if the instruction had been given. We are...
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...at all in the trial court, nonetheless requires reversal of the trial court's judgment ... for reasons of policy." State v. Ruocco , 322 Conn. 796, 803, 144 A.3d 354 (2016).14 In support of this claim, the defendant points to a number of exchanges on cross-examination between himself and th......
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...requires reversal of the trial court's judgment ... for reasons of policy." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Ruocco , 322 Conn. 796, 803, 144 A.3d 354 (2016). Put another way, plain error review is reserved for only the most egregious errors. When an error of such a magnitude ex......
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