Raynor v. Comm'r of Corr.

306 A.3d 25

222 Conn.App. 584

James RAYNOR

v.COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTION

(AC 45675)

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued September 18, 2023

Officially Released December 5, 2023

Deren Manasevit, assigned counsel, for the appellant (petitioner).

Timothy J. Sugrue, assistant state’s attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Sharmese L. Walcott, state’s attorney, and David Cariucci, former assistant state’s attorney, for the appellee (respondent).

Bright, C. J., and Alvord and Clark, Js.

ALVORD, J.

₅₈₇The petitioner, James Raynor, appeals, following the granting of certification to appeal, from the judgment of the habeas court denying his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. On appeal, the petitioner claims that the habeas court improperly determined that he failed to establish that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel during his criminal trial. Specifically, the petitioner claims that the habeas court erroneously determined that his trial counsel did not render ineffective assistance (1) by failing to object to uncharged misconduct evidence, and (2) by failing to limit the scope of cell site location information (CSLI) evidence by either requesting a Porter¹ hearing or presenting a witness to challenge the state’s CSLI expert. We affirm the judgment of the habeas court.

On the basis of the evidence presented at the petitioner’s criminal trial, the jury reasonably could have found the following facts, as set forth by this court in the petitioner’s direct appeal. "On the morning of July 24, 2009, Luis Torres (victim) traveled to 10 Liberty Street in Hartford to purchase heroin from an acquaintance, Alex Torres (Torres). At that time, Torres had known ₅₈₈the victim for approximately nine months. Torres testified that on several prior occasions he had sold the victim small amounts of heroin, but on this occasion, for the first time, the victim purchased a large quantity of heroin, a total of 100 bags. When the victim was making this purchase, he told Torres that he intended to sell the drugs in front of the 24 Hour Store near the intersection of Albany Avenue and Bedford Street in Hartford. Upon learning this, Torres told the victim ‘to be careful because it’s … a bad neighborhood’ and that he should ‘stay away from [that] area.’ After the victim made his purchase, he parted company with Torres and left Liberty Street.

"Later that evening, the victim drove to New Britain and picked up his girlfriend’s father, Miguel Rosado. Thereafter, in the early morning hours of July 25, 2009, the two men went to the 24 Hour Store on Albany Avenue to purchase beer and food. Upon arriving at the 24 Hour Store, Rosado and the victim spoke with two women, Adrienne Morrell and Karline DuBois, whom they believed to be prostitutes. After learning that they were not prostitutes, Rosado and the victim asked the women whether they could help them purchase ‘powder,’ or powder cocaine. Morrell and DuBois agreed, then got into the victim’s car and directed the men to Irving Street in Hartford, where the victim purchased an unspecified quantity of cocaine. The four then returned to the 24 Hour Store in the victim’s car.

"Upon returning to the 24 Hour Store, the victim displayed a bag of heroin to DuBois and asked her if she knew ‘where he could get rid of it,’ from which DuBois understood him to mean that ‘[h]e wanted to sell it.’ DuBois informed the victim that she did not use heroin, and thus she did not know where the victim could sell his drugs. DuBois then stated that she was going ‘back upstairs’ to the apartments above the 24 Hour Store, where local people often gathered to use ₅₈₉drugs. The victim asked DuBois if he could join her, but DuBois warned him that he should stay downstairs because ‘[p]eople don’t know you ….’ Ignoring this warning, the victim stated that he was going to go upstairs with DuBois, to which she responded, ‘Then you’re on your own.’

"Thereafter, the victim, Rosado, Morrell, and DuBois all went upstairs to the apartments above the 24 Hour Store. DuBois recalled that when they reached the apartments, six or seven people were already there, playing cards and getting high. After they entered, Morrell, DuBois and Rosado began to smoke crack cocaine. At the same time, the victim, who was very drunk, began offering heroin to the other occupants of the apartment. As DuBois had predicted, ‘[n]obody [in the apartment] wanted anything to do with [the victim] because nobody knew him.’ Shortly after the victim’s arrival, a group of three men entered the apartment. DuBois recognized two of the three men as Altaurus Spivey, whom DuBois knew as ‘S,’ and Joseph Ward, whom she knew as ‘Neutron.’ Although DuBois did not identify the third man by name, she described him as a ‘bigger black guy.’

"Upon entering the apartment, the three men approached the victim, and S asked, ‘What are you doing here?’ DuBois agreed with the prosecutor’s statement that S spoke to the victim ‘in a tough guy type of way,’ which she interpreted to mean, ‘you don’t belong up here. … [Y]ou’re not going to get rid of nothing. Nobody knows you. Just go.’ DuBois recalled feeling a growing tension between the groups and fearing that ‘there was going to be a big problem.’ Thereafter, according to DuBois, S and his group left the apartment, followed a few minutes later by the victim and an unidentified female, who went downstairs together and outside through the back door of the building to the area behind the 24 Hour Store. As this was occurring, ₅₉₀at approximately 2 a.m., DuBois, Rosado, and Morrell remained inside the apartment.

"Several witnesses testified that the 24 Hour Store was often busy at and after 2 a.m. because it was the only store in the area that was open at that time. People would therefore go there to purchase food and drinks after the nearby bars and clubs had closed for the evening. Indeed, Officer Steven Barone of the Hartford Police Department testified that the 24 Hour Store was known by law enforcement as a ‘nuisance spot,’ where there was always a high volume of foot traffic and criminal activity between 2 and 4 a.m. Consistent with Barone’s testimony, several witnesses stated that many people were both inside and outside of the 24 Hour Store in the early morning hours of July 25, 2009.

"One regular patron, Marc Doster, who lived on Albany Avenue in an apartment adjacent to the 24 Hour Store, was familiar with people who lived in or frequented the area around Bedford Street and Albany Avenue, including the [petitioner], who was known on the streets as ‘Ape.’ Doster testified that, in the early morning of July 25, 2009, as he was walking from his apartment to the 24 Hour Store, he was approached by the [petitioner] who asked him if he either knew or was affiliated with the man who was selling drugs behind the 24 Hour Store. Doster stated that he did not. The [petitioner] then told Doster, ‘don’t worry about it,’ because he was going ‘to pay [the man] a visit … talk to him.’ Doster then recalled that, just minutes after this conversation, he saw someone with a gun in his hand running toward the back of the 24 Hour Store. Although Doster could not see the face of the man with the gun because the man was wearing black clothing and had covered his face, he observed that the man was short and heavyset, with a body size and shape that resembled the [petitioner].

₅₉₁"As these events were transpiring, another regular patron of the 24 Hour Store, Tyrell Mohown, who had met the victim for the first time that evening, entered the store and purchased a cigar so that he and the victim could smoke marijuana together. After making his purchase, however, when Mohown went behind the 24 Hour Store to meet the victim, he saw the victim surrounded by five men, including Neutron and John Dickerson, nicknamed ‘Jerk.’ Mohown testified that although he did not see the [petitioner] or S in that group, he recalled that at least two of the five men had covered their faces with bandanas. Shortly after he came upon the scene, Mohown saw Neutron strike the victim with a baseball bat several times in the upper body. The other men then began punching and kicking the victim, who collapsed on the ground. Mohown then saw Jerk take out a gun and fire one round into the victim’s back before the group scattered in different directions. The victim, still conscious but unable to walk, stated that he thought he was about to die and asked Mohown to call an ambulance. Mohown returned to the 24 Hour Store and used a pay phone to report the shooting but, not wanting to get involved, did not identify the shooter.

"Another witness, Sonesta Reynolds-Campos (Campos),² was standing on Bedford Street near the 24 Hour Store when she heard a gunshot from the area behind the store. Upon hearing the gunshot, Campos directed her attention to that area, Where she saw a group of approximately six men. Campos recalled that S, Jerk, Neutron, and the [petitioner] were all in the group, and that the [petitioner] was then wearing a hoodie and holding what appeared to be a gun.

₅₉₂"At approximately 2:25 a.m., the Hartford police received reports of gunshots fired near the intersection of Bedford Street and Albany Avenue. Within minutes of receiving such reports, several Hartford police officers responded to the scene. Officer Barone, one of the first officers to respond, made efforts to secure the scene while other officers tended to the victim. At that time, officers saw multiple lacerations on the victim’s face and discovered a single gunshot wound to his back. The victim was then transported to a hospital, where it was determined that the bullet had struck his spine, paralyzing him. Due to the inherent complications of removing the bullet from the victim’s spine, physicians were unable to remove the bullet, and thus officers were unable to conduct forensic testing on the bullet at that time.³

"Several days after the shooting, Campos encountered the [petitioner] on Bedford Street....