State v. Santangelo

Decision Date22 December 1987
Docket NumberNo. 12900,12900
Citation205 Conn. 578,534 A.2d 1175
CourtConnecticut Supreme Court
PartiesSTATE of Connecticut v. Donald E. SANTANGELO.

William F. Gallagher, with whom, on the brief, was Robert P. Borquez, New Haven, for appellant (defendant).

Judith Rossi, Deputy Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, were Patrick Clifford and James G. Clark, Asst. State's Attys., for appellee (state).

Before PETERS, C.J., and HEALEY, SHEA, CALLAHAN and COVELLO, JJ.

CALLAHAN, Associate Justice.

The defendant, Donald Santangelo, was charged in an information with one count of the crime of murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a(a). 1 The charge arose from the brutal slaying of Jessie Carrano, a fifty year old New Haven woman whose body was found on September 13, 1984, partially concealed under a pile of debris, behind a factory building at 850 Sherman Avenue in Hamden. The woman's death was caused by multiple blows to the head with a blunt object which resulted in comminuted compound fractures of the skull and injuries to the brain. Her body also displayed a four inch incised wound under her chin caused by a sharp instrument, and other abrasions, lacerations and contusions. After a jury trial the defendant was convicted as charged and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of sixty years.

On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court erred in: (1) denying his motion to recuse; (2) denying his motion to strike testimony of the victim's husband and daughter; (3) denying his motion to exclude certain statements made by the victim to her husband and daughter which he claims were inadmissible hearsay; (4) charging the jury; (5) denying his motion to disqualify itself from sentencing; and (6) denying his motion of acquittal.

There was evidence to support and the jury could reasonably have found the following pertinent facts. The victim first met the defendant at the Chatham Pharmacy in the Fair Haven section of New Haven on the morning of September 7, 1984, while both were waiting for prescriptions to be filled. At that time, the defendant told the victim that he was a cook at the Ramada Inn in North Haven and that he could procure a job interview for her at the inn. He wrote down the telephone number of the inn and the name of the manager on a piece of brown paper bag which he gave to the victim. In a later telephone call he told the victim that he had arranged an interview for Monday, September 10, at 7:30 p.m.

The victim spoke to her husband, James Carrano, and her daughter, Janice, several times during the next few days concerning her meeting with the defendant. On Monday afternoon, September 10, the victim informed Janice that she expected to meet "Don" at the Chatham Pharmacy that evening and accompany him to the job interview. The victim asked her daughter to come with her but Janice declined. Thereafter, using the telephone number on the scrap of paper bag, the victim telephoned the Ramada Inn and spoke to the manager. The manager informed the victim that he knew of no prearranged interview but that she could come to the inn and fill out a job application. Shortly after the victim had completed her call to the manager, her telephone rang and was answered by her daughter. The caller identified himself as "Don" and asked to speak to the victim. When she was handed the telephone, the victim told the caller, "Yes, I will meet you at the Chatham Pharmacy."

Later, the victim telephoned her husband at his job and told him that she intended to meet "Don" at the pharmacy at 6:50 p.m., leave her car and accompany him in his vehicle to the job interview. She also informed her husband that she would arrange to pick him up from work at about 8 p.m. after she had returned from the interview. When he had not heard from his wife by 10 p.m., James Carrano called his son for a ride. Together they drove to the Chatham Pharmacy where they located the victim's parked automobile. James Carrano then went home and waited for his wife. When she did not appear during the next several hours he called the Ramada Inn twice, the last time at approximately 8 a.m. on September 11. At that time he talked to a cook who identified himself as "Don," who said he was from North Haven, did not know the victim, had never been in New Haven, and that he was unfamiliar with the location of the Chatham Pharmacy. Thereafter, James Carrano called the New Haven police department to report his wife missing.

The jury could also have found that the defendant was the only cook named "Don" employed at the Ramada Inn in North Haven, and that on September 10 he worked at the inn between the hours of 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. Later that day, at about 6 p.m., he borrowed the automobile of his girlfriend Carol Cacchillo, with whom he lived, and left their apartment purportedly to attend a menu meeting at the Ramada Inn. There was, however, no menu meeting scheduled at the inn for that evening. Between 7:30 and 8 p.m. on September 10, while driving Cacchillo's automobile, the defendant was involved in a one car accident on Sherman Avenue in Hamden. The accident occurred approximately eight-tenths of one mile from the site where the victim's body was later located. Cacchillo's car was rendered inoperable by the accident and had to be towed from the scene.

After the accident, the defendant told persons who later testified at the trial that he was unfamiliar with the neighborhood and that he was on his way home from work. He had, however, previously been employed in the immediate area and, as indicated above, had finished work at 2 p.m. that day. The defendant also related conflicting versions of how the mishap occurred. The day following the accident three witnesses who knew the defendant saw him walking on Sherman Avenue toward the factory at the rear of which the victim's body was later discovered.

Pursuant to their investigation of the missing person's report concerning the victim, New Haven police officers on September 11 and 12, prior to discovery of the victim's body, interviewed her family, the staff at the Ramada Inn, Cacchillo and the defendant. At that time the defendant acknowledged meeting a woman whom he could not identify at the Chatham Pharmacy on September 7 and recalled that he might have given her his manager's name. He denied knowing the victim, however, or ever having been with her in Cacchillo's automobile. He admitted to the police that he had lied to Cacchillo about being required to attend a menu meeting in order to obtain the use of her car to meet a male friend named Terry. He said he had driven around in Hamden looking for Terry for about two hours prior to the accident.

A search of Cacchillo's automobile by New Haven police department personnel at the garage where it had been towed subsequent to the accident, disclosed a blood stain on the front seat. The stain was later analyzed as type A blood, the victim's blood type. 2 The victim's left thumb print was also found on the interior of the front passenger door window. An impression of the defendant's right index finger was later lifted from a piece of torn paper bag found in the victim's pocketbook which was located near her body.

I

The defendant first argues that the trial court erred by denying his motion to recuse. The defendant claims, as the basis of his motion, that the trial court had actively participated in pretrial plea negotiations in his case and, consequently, disqualification was required. See State v. Gradzik, 193 Conn. 35, 47, 475 A.2d 269 (1984).

It is axiomatic that the burden of establishing a record that a judicial impropriety has occurred which demonstrates or gives the appearance of bias or partiality so as to require recusal rests with the party who claims the occurrence of such an impropriety. State v. Lopez, 197 Conn. 337, 348, 497 A.2d 390 (1985); State v. Fullwood, 194 Conn. 573, 581, 484 A.2d 435 (1984); State v. Nash, 149 Conn. 655, 658-59, 183 A.2d 275, cert. denied, 371 U.S. 868, 83 S.Ct. 130, 9 L.Ed.2d 104 (1962). "In the absence of such a record, we have no basis for concluding that the trial judge's pretrial activities so impaired, or appeared to impair, his ability to act as a judicial officer or a neutral arbiter that it was error to deny the motion for disqualification." State v. Fullwood, supra.

We first note that the defendant, although he filed a written motion to recuse, has failed to follow the procedural requirements of Practice Book § 997. 3 Perusal of the record reveals that it contains neither an affidavit setting forth the facts upon which he relies for disqualification nor a certificate of counsel attesting to the fact that the motion was made in good faith. Both are required procedural adjuncts to a motion to recuse a judicial authority. Practice Book § 997. Adherence to those procedures is necessary to obtain proper judicial review. State v. Weber, 6 Conn.App. 407, 412-13, 505 A.2d 1266, cert. denied, 199 Conn. 810, 508 A.2d 771 (1986). In view, however, of the serious consequences of the defendant's conviction and the fact that his claim goes to his fundamental constitutional right to a fair trial, we will review the available record despite its procedural deficiencies. Papa v. New Haven Federation of Teachers, 186 Conn. 725, 740, 444 A.2d 196 (1982); State v. Evans, 165 Conn. 61, 69-70, 327 A.2d 576 (1973).

In the absence of an affidavit or evidentiary hearing the available record consists only of a colloquy among the trial court, defense counsel and an assistant state's attorney. During the course of that colloquy defense counsel recounted his recollection of the part played by the trial court in pretrial proceedings relating to the defendant. Representations of counsel, however, are not evidence upon which we can rely in our review of the trial court's conduct. State v. Watson, 198 Conn. 598, 611, 504 A.2d 497 (1986); State v. Weber, supra, 6 Conn.App. at 413, 505 A.2d...

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