State v. Toste

• Decision Date: 11 February 1986
• Citation: 504 A.2d 1036,198 Conn. 573
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE of Connecticut v. William TOSTE.

Page 1036

504 A.2d 1036

198 Conn. 573

STATE of Connecticut v. William TOSTE.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued Nov. 6, 1985.

Decided Feb. 11, 1986.

Joseph G. Bruckmann, Asst. Public Defender, with whom, on brief, were Joette Katz, Public Defender, and Margaret Hayman, Former Asst. Public Defender, for appellant (defendant).

Richard F. Jacobson, Asst. State's Atty., with whom, on brief, were Donald A. Browne, State's Atty. and Domenick J. Galluzzo for appellee (state).

Before PETERS, C.J., and SHEA, SANTANIELLO, BRENNEMAN and MARY R. HENNESSEY, JJ. SANTANIELLO, Justice.

The defendant, William Toste, was arrested on December 20, 1974, for the killing of Mavis Hardy of Bridgeport. He was subsequently indicted for murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a, tried before a jury, and found guilty. He was sentenced on November 12, 1976, and an appeal to this court followed. On August 14, 1979, we granted him a new trial because of an erroneous charge to the jury on the insanity defense. State v. Toste, 178 Conn. 626, 424 A.2d 293 (1979). The retrial commenced on March 18, 1981. The defendant was again found guilty and was given a sentence of twenty-five years to life. He now appeals that conviction.

The jury could reasonably have found the following facts. On the morning of December 20, 1974, the defendant bought and drank some beer and went to the home of Mavis Hardy on Upton Street in Bridgeport. Hardy lived there with her son, Phillip Monteith, who was a friend of the defendant. Hardy had previously refused the defendant's request to move in and live with her son "like a brother." No one was home at the time he approached the house, so he gained entrance by breaking a window. He searched the house for money and took some coins and two watches. When he heard a car in the driveway, he went into the basement. Through a window, he saw that Hardy had come home. The defendant then took a pair of tinsnips, put on a pair of gloves and put a towel over his face. When Hardy went into the kitchen, he went upstairs and hit her twice in the head with the tinsnips. He then grabbed a knife and stabbed her in the back approximately twenty times. He also took a longer knife, a fork and a nail file and stabbed her again repeatedly.

The defendant fled the house, taking the victim's car. He was arrested later that day after becoming involved in two accidents with the stolen car. His clothes were spattered with the victim's blood and in his pockets were found the coins and watches taken from the Hardy residence. That evening, the defendant orally confessed to Captain Anthony Fabrizi of the Bridgeport police and apologized to Monteith for what he had done to his mother. Three days later he signed a written confession stating that he had planned to kill Hardy because he wanted to move into her house and live with her son and she would not allow it.

The defendant appeals claiming (1) that the trial court erred in failing to suppress the inculpatory statements given to the police; ¹ and (2) that the nineteen month delay before his retrial denied him his right to a speedy trial. We find no error.

I

The defendant claims that the oral statements made the night of his arrest ² and the written statements made three days later were erroneously admitted. He argues that the state failed to meet its burden of establishing that he waived his constitutional privilege against self-incrimination, as required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), ³ and that the state failed to show that the statements were made voluntarily. During trial, the court ruled the statements admissible after extensive testimony on the circumstances surrounding the confessions was elicited from Fabrizi on voir dire examination. On appeal, in order to determine whether the defendant's constitutional rights have been infringed, we review the record in its entirety and are not limited to the evidence before the trial court at the time the ruling admitting the statements was made. Beckwith v. United States, 425 U.S. 341, 348, 96 S.Ct. 1612, 1617, 48 L.Ed.2d 1 (1976); Davis v. North Carolina, 384 U.S. 737, 741-42, 86 S.Ct. 1761, 1764-65, 16 L.Ed.2d 895 (1966); Lodowski v. State, 302 Md. 691, 711, 490 A.2d 1228 (1985); see also Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132, 162, 45 S.Ct. 280, 69 L.Ed. 543 (1925); State v. Randall, 94 Ariz. 417, 419, 385 P.2d 709 (1963).

The circumstances leading to the incriminating statements can be summarized as follows: The defendant was brought to the police station immediately after his arrest on Friday, December 20, 1974, and was read his Miranda rights by Fabrizi. ⁴ The defendant, after each warning was read, orally indicated that he understood it. He also signed a written form acknowledging that he understood his rights. The defendant was then given a pat down search which turned up coins and watches from the Hardy home. Fabrizi asked him if he wanted to tell him what had happened at the victim's home and reminded him about the blood on his clothes and the items found in his pockets. The defendant first told Fabrizi that he and another man had gone to the Hardy home but that it was his companion who had killed Hardy. Thereafter, however, the defendant recanted and admitted that he had no accomplice and that it was he who had committed the killing. Fabrizi then told the defendant that they needed his clothes and asked him to remove them. The defendant's reaction to the request was to yell an obscenity and get up from his chair with his hand in a fist. The captain came around the table, slapped the defendant and pushed him back into his chair. After another request for the clothes, the defendant complied.

At this time, the defendant asked if he could see Monteith. When Monteith was brought in, the defendant apologized for what he had done to his mother and explained that he only wanted to live with him. The defendant also indicated to Fabrizi that he needed help and that he did not want to go to jail. Fabrizi told him that he did not have the authority to send him to a mental health facility, but did say that he would ask the court to order a mental evaluation. The defendant was then taken to a cellblock and had no contact with Fabrizi until Monday, December 23.

At about 9 a.m. on Monday, Fabrizi brought the defendant out of his cell and read him his Miranda rights in the same fashion as on Friday--stopping after each paragraph and asking him if he understood. The defendant responded affirmatively and again signed an acknowledgment form. Fabrizi then asked the defendant if he wanted to give a written statement concerning the murder, and the defendant agreed. The captain posed questions and typed the defendant's answers. In his statements the defendant described in detail how he had killed the victim.

Fabrizi testified that he had known the defendant for four or five years. When asked about the defendant's mental capacity, Fabrizi stated that "he operates at about a sixth to seventh grade level, [is] street wise, communicates well, [has] no extensive vocabulary, but he understands, he comprehends.... He reads very haltingly. His ability to write is not good at all ... he prints most everything." Fabrizi said that on Friday the defendant was nervous and had been drinking, but that he had responded to questions in "good, clear speech" and that his demeanor indicated that "he was all right." Psychological testing admitted during trial on the issue of insanity indicated that the defendant had an IQ in the 68-71 range, was mildly retarded and was of "dull normal" intelligence. A psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist who testified on behalf of the state concluded that he had no thought disorders or any major psychiatric disturbances which would interfere with his ability to understand the nature of the charges against him or to assist his counsel in the preparation of a defense. A clinical psychologist called by the defense testified that the defendant had a profile of a very violent person and had been diagnosed as a "frantic schizophrenic."

A

The defendant claims that the state failed to prove that he had knowingly and intelligently waived his right to remain silent at the time he made incriminating statements. Specifically, he argues that he had a limited ability to understand the Miranda warnings as read to him and that the police did not adequately explain the meaning of his rights. As to the Friday statements, he claims that intoxication additionally may have interfered with his ability to understand. He also argues that the state did not show that he had waived his rights by his course of conduct.

"In order to show that the defendant waived his privilege against self-incrimination, the state must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he knowingly and intelligently waived his constitutional right to remain silent. State v. Alfonso, 195 Conn. 624, 628, 490 A.2d 75 (1985); State v. Perry, 195 Conn. 505, 516 n. 8, 488 A.2d 1256 (1985)." State v. Aversa, 197 Conn. 685, 695, 501 A.2d 370 (1985); see Miranda v. Arizona, supra. "The question is not one of form, but rather whether the defendant in fact knowingly and voluntarily waived the rights delineated in the Miranda case." North Carolina v. Butler 441 U.S. 369, 373, 99 S.Ct. 1755, 1757, 60 L.Ed.2d 286 (1979); State v. Frazier, 185 Conn. 211, 226, 440 A.2d 916 (1981), cert. denied, 458 U.S. 1112, 102 S.Ct. 3496, 73 L.Ed.2d 1375 (1982). "[T]he question of waiver must be determined on 'the particular facts and circumstances surrounding that case, including the background, experience, and conduct of the accused.' Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464 [58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938) ]." North Carolina v. Butler, supra, 441 U.S. at 374-75, 99 S.Ct. at 1757-58. The issue of waiver is factual, "but our usual deference to the finding of the trial court on questions of this nature is qualified by the necessity...