State v. Simms

• Decision Date: 25 November 1986
• Docket Number: No. 12663,12663
• Citation: 201 Conn. 395,518 A.2d 35
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. Floyd SIMMS.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Page 35

518 A.2d 35

201 Conn. 395

STATE of Connecticut v. Floyd SIMMS.

No. 12663.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Oct. 1, 1986.

Decided Nov. 25, 1986.

John R. Williams, with whom, on the brief, was Sue L. Wise, for appellant (defendant).

Susann E. Gill, Deputy Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on the brief, were Herbert Appleton, Asst. State's Atty. and Bernadette Conway, Deputy Asst. State's Atty., for appellee (State).

Before PETERS, C.J., and ARTHUR H. HEALEY, DANNEHY, CALLAHAN and HAMMER, JJ.

PETERS, Chief Justice.

The principal issue in this criminal appeal is the defendant's claim that the state unconstitutionally suppressed exculpatory information. The defendant, Floyd Simms, was charged by indictment with the crime of felony murder, in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-54c and 53a-54a(c). ¹ After a trial to a jury, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appeals from the judgment of this conviction. We find no error.

The jury could reasonably have found the following facts. The dead body of seventy-five year old Theodore McInnis was discovered on the grounds of St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hartford on the morning of April 3, 1982. McInnis had been employed as a caretaker and night watchman at the cathedral, and had reported on April 2 for his usual 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. He was found lying in a pool of blood, with extensive wounds and lacerations all over his body. Although several witnesses testified that McInnis had always worn a gold watch and a gold ring with a light green stone, no watch or ring was found on his body. The wallet and the ring of church keys that the victim had usually carried at work were missing as well. After conducting an autopsy, the medical examiner determined that the victim's death, which had occurred on or about April 2, was caused principally by multiple blunt force injuries, a secondary cause of death being severe coronary atherosclerosis. The medical examiner also reported that the severe head injury, and certain other injuries sustained by the victim, seemed to have been caused by the sole of a shoe and that the injuries to the victim's groin were consistent with his having been "stomped on."

At the time of the incident, the defendant was a seventeen year old resident of the Community Youth House in Hartford, a house located not far from the cathedral. Several Hartford police officers arrested him on April 22, on charges unrelated to this case, at which time he made two incriminating statements to the police. He gave a third incriminating statement on April 29, while he was being detained at Litchfield Correctional Facility.

Two residents of the Community Youth House, Darryl Terrell and Carmen Durso, testified against the defendant at trial. Both stated that on April 2 they had seen the defendant leave the house by way of a second floor fire escape, and that he was wearing "Playboy" sneakers and a ski vest. Durso testified that he had seen the defendant return at about 11:30 p.m., dressed in the same manner. Durso stated that he had overheard a conversation between the defendant and Wamon Mohagel, another house resident, in which Mohagel asked, "Do you think that we killed him or hurt him seriously or badly?" The defendant's response was, "I don't know, but if we get busted, we have a handcuff key." According to Durso, Mohagel then asked the defendant whether "they'd be able to get any money from the stuff that they got from the old man," to which the defendant answered, "I don't know, but we're going to have to do another hit pretty soon." Durso stated that the defendant had attempted to sell him a gold tone watch with a brown leather band, and a gold ring with a light green stone, on April 3, and again on April 5 or 6.

Terrell testified that during a conversation with the defendant at about 1 a.m. that night, the defendant had told him that he and two other house residents, Wamon Mohagel and Danny Jones, had robbed a night watchman at the church and had hit the old man. Terrell stated that he had seen a gold tone watch with a black or brown band, and a big ring of keys, hanging on the wall in the defendant's room, and had been told by the defendant that both items had come from the big church on Asylum Street. After their conversation, the defendant borrowed a rag from Terrell which he used to clean his sneakers with a household cleanser.

George Sams, a counselor at the Youth House, testified that during the week following April 2, he too had seen a large ring of keys on the dresser in the defendant's room, and that the defendant had told him that the keys were his. According to Sams, the defendant at that time was wearing a gold watch with a black or brown leather band.

The state's forensics expert testified at trial that he had compared fibers taken from the soles of the defendant's sneakers to fibers on the shirt worn by the victim on the night he died and had determined that the fiber samples were substantially similar in color, diameter and make-up. The expert witness had also compared a photograph of the impression left on the victim's forehead with an inked impression of the sole of the defendant's right shoe and had found many similarities in the two impressions.

At trial, the defendant tendered a defense of alibi and also offered evidence of the affirmative defenses to felony murder. In his appeal, he does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence for a conviction of felony murder. Rather, he claims error on four grounds: (1) the grand jury that indicted the defendant was tainted by adverse preindictment publicity; (2) the prosecution violated its constitutional duty to disclose exculpatory information requested by the defendant; (3) the trial court improperly admitted incriminating statements made by the defendant absent a knowing, voluntary and intelligent waiver of his constitutional rights; and (4) the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury on the scope of accessorial liability under General Statutes § 53a-54c and on the reasonable doubt standard. We will consider each claim of error separately.

I

The defendant's first claim of error asserts that he was denied his constitutional right to an impartial grand jury. Because the watchman had been murdered in St. Joseph's Cathedral, and because of other emotionally-laden facts, including his age and the brutality of the murder, this case concededly engendered widespread local publicity. In order to assure that the selection of grand jurors was untainted by this extensive preindictment publicity, the defendant requested, at the initiation of the grand jury proceedings, that the trial court dire each of the grand jurors individually in accordance with a submitted list of proposed questions. ² The trial court, B. O'Neill, J., denied this request because, in its view, such a procedure would cause a "certain amount of mischief." The court acknowledged, however, that this was a "case of some notoriety," and agreed to advise the grand jurors of the date and location of the incident, and to ask whether any of the grand jurors had such knowledge of the incident as to prevent them from being impartial. When the court described the incident and inquired about any prejudice the grand jurors might have harbored, no one on the panel came forward to disqualify himself. ³ The grand jury thereafter the defendant on charges of felony murder; General Statutes §§ 53a-54c, 53a-54a(c); on July 8, 1982.

The defendant admits that this record discloses no evidence of actual prejudice, but urges us to presume, merely because the grand jury was not subjected to the requested voir dire, that the grand jury was in fact prejudiced. Although we agree with the defendant that he was entitled to an impartial grand jury, we are unprepared to adopt a presumption of prejudice in the circumstances of this case.

This state has long recognized the constitutional right to an impartial grand jury. At the time of this incident, in April of 1982, article first, § 8, of the Connecticut constitution provided that "[n]o person shall be held to answer for any crime, punishable by death or life imprisonment, unless on a presentment of an indictment of a grand jury...." ⁴ The constitutional requirement of indictment by a grand jury was designed "to interpose, between the state and one accused of a crime for which the punishment may be death or life imprisonment, a body of eighteen disinterested persons...." State v. Menillo, 159 Conn. 264, 275, 268 A.2d 667 (1970); see State v. Stepney, 181 Conn. 268, 272, 435 A.2d 701 (1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 1077, 101 S.Ct. 856, 66 L.Ed.2d 799 (1981). An individual brought before a grand jury is thus constitutionally entitled to an impartial and unbiased grand jury; United States v. Burke, 700 F.2d 70, 82 (2d Cir.1983); but the members of the grand jury need not be selected in any particular manner. State v. Avcollie, 188 Conn. 626, 634, 453 A.2d 418 (1982), cert. denied, 461 U.S. 928, 103 S.Ct. 2088, 77 L.Ed.2d 299 (1983). The sole constitutional restriction on the selection of grand jurors prohibits intentional discrimination on the basis of race or class. State v. Cobbs, 164 Conn. 402, 409, 324 A.2d 234, cert. denied, 414 U.S. 861, 94 S.Ct. 77, 38 L.Ed.2d 112 (1973).

We have never held, however, that the constitutional right to a disinterested grand jury creates a concomitant right to voir dire prospective grand jurors before their impaneling. Such a claim must be viewed from the perspective of this court's historical reluctance to interfere with the secrecy of grand jury proceedings. See, e.g., State v. Maldonado, 193 Conn. 350, 362-63, 478 A.2d 581 (1984); State v. Canady, 187 Conn. 281, 282-84, 445 A.2d 895 (1982). If we were to require a full-scale investigation of a grand jury panel upon unsubstantiated assertions that the panel had been improperly drawn, we would be departing from this historical pattern and would be opening the door to...