State v. Sawyer

• Decision Date: 04 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. 22382.,22382.
• Citation: 74 Conn.App. 743,813 A.2d 1073
• Court: Connecticut Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Douglas SAWYER.

Page 1073

813 A.2d 1073

74 Conn.App. 743

STATE of Connecticut v. Douglas SAWYER.

No. 22382.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued November 21, 2002.

Decided February 4, 2003.

DRANGINIS, FLYNN and HEALEY, Js.

David B. Bachman, for the appellant (defendant).

David C. Nelson, certified legal intern, with whom were Mitchell S. Brody, senior assistant state's attorney, and, on the brief, Scott J. Murphy, state's attorney, and Vernon D. Oliver, assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

HEALEY, J.

The defendant, Douglas Sawyer, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of one count of sexual assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-70,¹ one count of burglary in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-101 (a)(1),² two counts of sexual assault in the third degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-72a (a)(1),³ one count of threatening in violation of General Statutes § 53a-62⁴ and one count of reckless endangerment in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-63.⁵ On appeal, the defendant claims that the court improperly admitted into evidence acts of uncharged misconduct. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury could have reasonably found the following facts. On July 15, 1998, the victim, D,⁶ lived with her boyfriend, her children and another couple in the town of Plymouth. After D's boyfriend and the other couple left to go shopping, D remained at home to watch her children. Also present in D's residence were children of the defendant.⁷ The defendant, who lived across the street from D, observed the children playing in a canoe that was in the backyard. He became upset, began to yell at the children and ordered them to stop playing in the canoe. The defendant went over and then entered D's home, and started to berate her for allowing the children to play on the canoe.

D went upstairs to watch television, and the defendant, uninvited, subsequently followed her into the living room. D was sitting in a rocking chair, and the defendant stood behind her. He then proceeded to reach under her shirt and grope her breasts. D repeatedly asked him to stop and to leave her alone. She also informed the defendant that she would tell her boyfriend what he had done.

The defendant then proceeded to unbutton D's jeans and inserted his finger into her vagina. D told him to stop. She attempted to push him off, but was unable to do so due to the defendant's size and superior strength. The defendant took a folding knife out of a sheath that he carried on his belt and opened it, exposing the blade. The defendant told her that he would kill her if she told anyone what had occurred.⁸ He then placed the knife blade on D's chest, causing her pain, but did not use enough force to break the skin.

The defendant and D heard a motor vehicle arrive at the house. It was D's boyfriend and the other couple who lived with D returning from grocery shopping. The defendant folded the knife blade, placed it back in the sheath and left the victim's home.

D exhibited noticeable changes in her behavior after the July 15, 1998 assault. She became depressed, scared and withdrawn. On August 20, 1998, approximately five weeks after the defendant had assaulted her, D told her boyfriend and others about the sexual assault perpetrated by the defendant. D filed a complaint with the police department, and the defendant subsequently was arrested and charged.

After a jury trial, the defendant was convicted on all counts. The court sentenced him to an effective term of twenty years incarceration, suspended after twelve years, and ten years probation. This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.

On appeal, the defendant claims that the court improperly admitted into evidence acts of uncharged misconduct. Specifically, the defendant argues that the court should not have admitted evidence that he (1) threatened his former wife over the telephone after she refused to engage in sexual relations with him, and (2) used a knife to puncture the tire of his former brotherin-law's motor vehicle after an argument. We disagree.

As an initial matter, we set forth the applicable standard of review and legal principles that govern our resolution of the defendant's appeal. "As a general rule, evidence of prior misconduct is inadmissible to prove that a criminal defendant is guilty of the crime of which the defendant is accused.... Such evidence cannot be used to suggest that the defendant has a bad character or a propensity for criminal behavior." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Torres, 57 Conn. App. 614, 621, 749 A.2d 1210, cert. denied, 253 Conn. 927, 754 A.2d 799 (2000); see Conn. Code Evid. § 4-5 (a); C. Tait, Connecticut Evidence (3d Ed. 2001) § 4.19.2, p. 232. "We have, however, recognized exceptions to the general rule if the purpose for which the evidence is offered is to prove intent, identity, malice, motive, a system of criminal activity or the elements of a crime." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Colon, 71 Conn.App. 217, 242, 800 A.2d 1268, cert. denied, 261 Conn. 934, 806 A.2d 1067 (2002); see also Conn. Code Evid. § 4-5(b).

"To determine whether evidence of prior misconduct falls within an exception to the general rule prohibiting its admission, we have adopted a two-pronged analysis. .... First, the evidence must be relevant and material to at least one of the circumstances encompassed by the exceptions. Second, the probative value of such evidence must outweigh the prejudicial effect of the other crime evidence....

"Our standard of review on such matters is well established. The admission of evidence of prior uncharged misconduct is a decision properly within the discretion of the trial court.... [E]very reasonable presumption should be given in favor of the trial court's ruling.... [T]he trial court's decision will be reversed only where abuse of discretion is manifest or where an injustice appears to have been done.... The problem is ... one of balancing the actual relevancy of the other crimes evidence in light of the issues and the other evidence available to the prosecution against the degree to which the jury will probably be roused by the evidence." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Yusuf, 70 Conn.App. 594, 608, 800 A.2d 590, cert. denied, 261 Conn. 921, 806 A.2d 1064 (2002).

The following additional facts are necessary to the resolution of the defendant's appeal. On June 25, 2001, prior to the start of the trial, the defendant filed a motion in limine to exclude various uncharged acts of misconduct.⁹ On July 9, 2001, the court held a hearing on the motion,¹⁰ but refrained from issuing a ruling until it heard the testimony during the state's proffer. During the trial, the court heard testimony, outside of the presence of the jury, regarding various acts of uncharged misconduct perpetrated by the defendant.¹¹ The court admitted into evidence two instances of uncharged misconduct that are the subject of the defendant's appeal. Specifically, the court permitted testimony that the defendant had threatened his former wife, D's sister, over the telephone after she refused to engage in sexual relations with him and that he had used a knife after an argument with his former brother-in-law to puncture the tire of a motor vehicle the brother-in-law was using. The defendant's claims fail for two reasons. We conclude that the court properly admitted evidence concerning both instances of uncharged misconduct, but even if we assume arguendo that the admission of the evidence was improper, the error was harmless.

I

D's sister, the defendant's former wife, testified¹² that on April 22, 2001, approximately three months before the start of the defendant's trial, she received a telephone call from the defendant. During the conversation, the defendant stated that he wanted to engage in sexual relations with her. She informed him that she was not interested because she was involved in a relationship with another person at that time. The defendant replied that if she did not have sex with him, he would make her life miserable and make it hard for her to live. She continued to decline his invitation to resume physical relations with him. He threatened her again by stating that he would find the person she was involved with and inform him falsely that she recently had resumed a sexual relationship with the defendant.¹³

The court found that the threatening telephone call made by the defendant to D's sister was relevant to the issue of identity because the incidents shared several similar characteristics: (1) D and her sister were unmarried at the time they were threatened by the defendant; (2) both women previously had been related to the defendant by a marital relationship — D's sister was the defendant's former wife, and D was his former sisterin-law; (3) both women lived near the defendant; (4) the defendant was superior in strength to D and her sister; (5) the defendant knew that both of the women were mentally handicapped and were supported by supplemental security income as a result of their disability; (6) both women were similar in age; (7) the defendant used threats to impose his will and domination over the women to achieve his goal of sexual gratification; and (8) the defendant made no effort to conceal his identity from the women.

In State v. Jones, 205 Conn. 638, 534 A.2d 1199 (1987), our Supreme Court stated: "It is not enough that the two offenses are similar. To establish a common design, the characteristics of the two offenses must be sufficiently distinctive and unique as to be like a signature. ... On the other hand, the inference need not depend upon one or more unique features common [to both offenses], for features of substantial but lesser distinctiveness, although insufficient to raise the inference if considered separately, may yield a distinctive combination if...