State v. Smith

• Decision Date: 07 August 1951
• Citation: 82 A.2d 816,138 Conn. 196
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. SMITH. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 816

82 A.2d 816

138 Conn. 196

STATE v. SMITH.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Aug. 7, 1951.

James C. Shannon, Bridgeport, Melvin M. Dichter, Stamford, for appellant.

Lorin W. Willis, State's Atty., Bridgeport, Otto J. Saur, Asst. State's Atty., Bridgeport, for appellee.

Before BROWN, C. J., and JENNINGS, BALDWIN, INGLIS and O'SULLIVAN, JJ.

INGLIS, Judge.

The defendant was found guilty of murder in the first degree upon an indictment charging him with wilful, deliberate and premeditated murder. Upon this appeal, he has assigned as error the denial of his motion to set aside the verdict, the sustaining of a demurrer to his challenge to the array of the panel, the denial of his motion for a mistrial, a claimed error in the charge and certain rulings on evidence.

In the early morning of Saturday, July 23, 1949, Grover S. Hart was shot and killed in the clubhouse of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club of Greenwich, where he was employed as a night watchman. The principal question in the case is whether the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt both that the defendant was implicated in the killing and that the murder was wilful, deliberate and premediated. From the evidence, the jury might reasonably have found, among others, the following facts: The bullet which caused the death was discharged from a Smith and Wesson .22 caliber revolver. There were found on the premises, in the near neighborhood of the shooting, two other bullets and four cartridge cases marked XR. At least one of these bullets and the four cartridge cases had come from a .22 caliber Colt automatic pistol.

About half past one in the morning of Sunday, July 24, two New York state policemen discovered, parked at the Hollywood Cafe in Brewster, N. Y., a gray Cadillac automobile with New Jersey registration plates NN65A. There was a piece of rope tied to the handle of the trunk to hold it in place. When the car was first seen, one man was standing by the open left front door and another was seated on the right side of the front seat. The policemen left to get their own automobile and by the time they returned to the Cadillac both men had disappeared. There was found in the Cadillac a .22 caliber Colt automatic pistol with a clip of shells each bearing the marking XR. This pistol was the gun from which the four cartridge cases found at the scene of the crime had been ejected. It was in a leather holster. There was also discovered in the car another leather holster. Both the Colt and its holster and the second holster had been stolen on July 9 from a home in New Canaan, and when stolen the second holster had contained a Smith and Wesson .22 caliber revolver. The Cadillac also contained a hat which was the property of the manager of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club, six neckties bearing the insignia of the Yacht Club, a memorandum made by an employee of the club, several small pieces of jewelry and two tie clasps, all of which had been removed from the Indian Harbor Yacht Club on the night of the killing. In the Cadillac was a white shirt bearing a laundry mark which indicated that it belonged to a man named Smith who lived in Noroton Heights, Darien. The defendant's parents resided there and at times he stayed with them. There was also a set of Connecticut motor vehicle registration plates marked SA661.

Shortly before the car was first noticed by the New York police, the defendant was at the bar inside the Hollywood Cafe drinking beer. The Cadillac car had been stolen from Frederick B. Freid of Stamford in June, 1949. At that time it bore Connecticut registration plates SS404. On several occasions during June and July the defendant was seen driving a gray Cadillac car which corresponded in description to the one found by the New York police in Brewster, even to the extent that a rope was tied so as to hold the trunk cover in place. At various times the car driven by the defendant bore Connecticut license plates SS404 and SL513. Registration plates Connecticut SL513 and Connecticut SA661, found in the car at Brewster, and New Jersey NN65A had all been stolen from a garage in Stamford.

The defendant was arrested on July 28. He was found concealed in the woods at the Wilton reservoir. He gave the name of Frank C. Lynch, denying that his name was Smith, and claimed that he was a member of a camping party which was in the neighborhood. It developed that there was no truth to this claim. He had in his possession a bottle of hair dye.

On the trial the defendant took the stand on his own behalf. He denied all implication in the killing. He also denied that he had any connection with the Cadillac car found in Brewster and offered a rather weak alibi both for the time of the crime and for the time when the car was found. He did admit that he had been driving a Cadillac car during June and July, but claimed that it was a different model and belonged to a gambler by whom he was employed. He accounted for the fact that he had been hiding out from the police on the ground that he thought they were after him for violation of his parole from state prison. His answers to questions on cross-examination were evasive to such an extent that the jury might reasonably have found that he was not entitled to credit.

It is apparent that the state's case relating to the connection of the defendant with the killing and to proof of the premeditation of the killing rested exclusively on circumstantial evidence. It does not follow from that, however, that it was not a strong case. The law recognizes no distinction between circumstantial evidence and direct evidence so far as probative force is concerned. If evidence, whether direct or circumstantial, should convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that an accused is guilty, that is all that is required for a conviction. State v. Colonese, 108 Conn. 454, 460, 143 A. 561; State v. Rome, 64 Conn. 329, 334, 30 A. 57. As has been said so often, proof beyond a reasonable doubt is such proof as precludes every reasonable hypothesis except that which it tends to support and is consistent with the defendant's guilt and inconsistent with any other rational conclusion. The requirement that evidence must be such as satisfies beyond a reasonable doubt 'does not mean that the proof must be beyond a possible doubt, and a possible supposition of innocence is a far different thing from a reasonable hypothesis.' State v. McDonough, 129 Conn. 483, 485, 29 A.2d 582, 583; State v. Santoro, 128 Conn. 297, 299, 22 A.2d 793; State v. Guilfoyle, 109 Conn. 124, 139, 145 A. 761; State v. Block, 87 Conn. 573, 577, 89 A. 167, 49 L.R.A.,N.S., 913.

In the present case the presence in the Cadillac, as it stood at the Hollywood Cafe, of one of the guns which had been discharged at the scene of the killing and of the various articles which had been taken from the Indian Harbor Yacht Club warranted the inference, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that whoever was then in possession of the car had been one of those who did the killing. The fact that the accused was in the neighborhood when the Cadillac was found, that what was probably his shirt was in the car and that he had been driving the same car for several weeks before that time led irresistably to the inference that it was he who was in possession of the car. It follows that this evidence, supported by the evidence of the guilty conduct of the defendant at the time of his arrest and other facts of lesser importance, was sufficient to justify the jury in finding that it had been established beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was one of the participants in the crime. See State v. Litman, 106 Conn. 345, 349,...