State v. Jordan

135 Conn.App. 635

42 A.3d 457

STATE of Connecticut

v.Victor L. JORDAN, Sr.

No. 32123.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued Jan. 18, 2012.

Decided May 22, 2012.

Pamela S. Nagy, special public defender, for the appellant (defendant).

Timothy J. Sugrue, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Maureen Platt, state's attorney, and Terence D. Mariani, Jr., senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

LAVINE, SHELDON and BISHOP, Js.

BISHOP, J.

The defendant, Victor L. Jordan, Sr., appeals from the judgment of conviction of attempt to commit robbery in the third degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a–49 (a)(2) and 53a–136, conspiracy to commit robbery in the third degree in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a–48 and 53a–136, and tampering with physical evidence in violation of General Statutes § 53a–155.¹ On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the court improperly admitted evidence of prior misconduct, (2) there was insufficient evidence to support the tampering conviction, (3) there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction of attempt to commit robbery in the third degree and conspiracy to commit robbery in the third degree, (4) he was deprived of a fair trial due to prosecutorial impropriety and (5) the court improperly enhanced his sentence under General Statutes § 53a–40b. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On April 1, 2008, Tannith McDonnell, the assistant manager of the Naugatuck Savings Bank located at 565 Straits Turnpike in Watertown, met an acquaintance, Patsy Lombardi, in the bank parking lot at approximately 4 p.m. after she had locked the bank's doors for the day. While seated in Lombardi's car, she observed a man approach the bank who was wearing a heavy black coat with a raised hood, a camouflage ski mask, dark jeans and black gloves.² The man placed a gloved hand inside his pocket and pulled “aggressively” on the bank door with the other hand. When the locked door would not open, the man walked back down the sidewalk and out of sight. McDonnell waited until the man cleared the corner and then used Lombardi's cell phone to call 911 and report her observations to the police. Watertown police Officer Jeffrey McKirryher, who was on duty nearby directing traffic, received McDonnell's report over his police radio. McKirryher immediately saw a likely suspect and when he called out to him, the man took off, running.

McKirryher chased the suspect onto Birch Meadow Drive, a nearby cul-de-sac, where he saw a tan vehicle with two distinctive black doors parked at the end of the road. The suspect made brief contact with the operator of the tan vehicle and then ran into a wooded area. As the car was driven away, McKirryher broadcast his observations over his police radio. Shortly thereafter, Watertown police Detective David Bromley heard the report, saw the tan car and pursued it until it came to a halt at a police roadblock.

Virginia Palmer was on Birch Meadow Drive walking her dog when she saw a light-skinned black or Hispanic man in a dark jacket running up her street while being chased by police. Palmer observed that the fleeing man was wearing a telephone earpiece, and she heard him say, “[M]eet me on the other street, meet me on the other street.” The man then ran into the wooded area at the top of the street. Gerald Boudreau was home on Birch Meadow Drive that afternoon and saw a black man wearing dark clothes and sunglasses run across his backyard while removing his jacket and running toward Sprucewood Road.

Katherine Desantis, who lived on Sprucewood Road, which runs parallel to Birch Meadow Drive, saw a black man wearing a dark jacket, dark jeans and a dark colored “do-rag” on his head, run from behind a neighbor's house. She noted that the man kept looking behind him as if he was being pursued. While the man was in the middle of the street, she saw the man remove his jacket, revealing its bright colored lining. Desantis telephoned the police as the man was in her neighbor's yard, looking around. Desantis next saw the man in her own backyard removing his gray sweatshirt and then going around to the back of her carport.³ Desantis' husband, Dennis Desantis, arrivedhome shortly after the police had left and located a sweatshirt “crumpled up in a ball” at the far side of the carport. Two days later, Katherine Desantis located a dark jacket with a bright red-orange lining in a neighbor's trash can. The police collected the gray sweatshirt and the dark jacket from the Desantises. When removing the jacket from the trash can, the police also discovered a “black fabric type item”; a “neoprene-like fabric mask” that was black on one side and camouflaged on the other; a pair of black leather gloves; and a “small, black plastic ... shopping bag.”

The tan automobile with two black doors that was halted by the police at the roadblock was an Infiniti sedan registered to the defendant.⁴ The lone occupant and operator of the vehicle was Herman Cordero. Cordero testified that he fixed cars for a living and that he had been working on the defendant's car at a nearby Super 8 Motel on the day of the incident. He stated that, because he needed more tools, he decided to get some from his house. Cordero testified that he drove the defendant's Infiniti, with the defendant as a passenger, to retrieve the tools and that on the way the defendant asked him to pull over in the LaBonne's Supermarket parking lot. LaBonne's Supermarket and Naugatuck Savings Bank are on opposite ends of the same parking lot. The defendant gave no reason for wanting to alight from the car, but simply stated that he would be back in a few minutes. Cordero claimed that because it took the defendant longer to return than he had expected, he decided to continue to his home to retrieve the tools and then return to the parking lot for the defendant. Once en route, however, he changed his mind about driving alone to his home because he did not want the defendant to think he was stealing his car. Accordingly, he claimed, he pulled into a cul-de-sac for a few minutes to wait. He stated that it was just a coincidence that he stopped in the cul-de-sac that the fleeing suspect had used as an escape route. Although the police discovered three cell phones in the Infiniti pursuant to a search warrant, Cordero denied making any contact with the suspect between the time he dropped him off at the parking lot and his confrontation with the police.

One of the cell phones discovered by the police led them to Jennifer Campbell, a woman who was romantically involved with the defendant. Campbell testified that the defendant called her at about 8 p.m. on April 1, 2008, and said that he needed help. He asked her to meet him at the Super 8 Motel where, he said, he was going by taxicab and where he would be with his wife and children. Campbell testified that when she arrived at the motel, the defendant asked her to rent a room in her name, and he provided her with money for the cost of the room. According to Campbell, after settling into the room with her, the defendant attempted multiple times to call a person named “Jun,” but he could not reach him. Although she knew who Jun was, she did not learn that his real name was Herman Cordero until after she was arrested. Campbell testified that she had seen the defendant and Cordero, whom she knew as Jun, together “[v]ery many” times, and she described the two men as “[v]ery tight ... very close.”

While the defendant and Campbell were in the motel room, the defendant expressed concern that “they're” going to connect him and her together because his iPhone, left in the car, contained her first and last name in its directory. Campbell stated that when she asked the defendant who “they” were, the defendant avoided answering the question. After some further discussion, Campbell called Eric Pearson to ask that he rent a separate room for the defendant. Thereafter, Campbell drove to her home in Bristol to retrieve clothing for the defendant because his jeans were muddy and he was wet and cold. Campbell testified that when she returned with the clothing and asked the defendant why he was wet, he replied that he was going to “commit a heist” in Watertown but the building was closed, and that the police had chased him through a muddy wooded area, believing that he was the person who had been spotted wearing a mask in the vicinity of the bank.

Campbell also testified that on April 2, 2008, the defendant asked her for a ride to court in Bridgeport. Campbell agreed and drove to Waterbury in her burgundy Buick LeSabre where she picked up the defendant at a 7–11 store. She drove the defendant to the Super 8 Motel, where, she claimed, he got “very excited” and told her to “[k]eep going, get out of there, we got to get out of here.” She testified that she believed the defendant was excited as a result of seeing Detectives David McKnight and Michael Ponzillo of the Waterbury police department speaking with the defendant's wife at the Super 8 Motel. In his testimony, McKnight stated that he saw a red Buick in the parking lot, recognized the defendant as its front seat passenger and locked eyes with him. McKnight testified that after he saw the defendant motion the Buick's operator to keep moving, the car took off at a high rate of speed.

Later in the day, after Campbell received cell phone messages that Waterbury detectives wanted to speak with her, the defendant drove her to the police station. According to Campbell, although she initially was uncooperative, she eventually agreed to help the police try to lure the defendant to a place where he could be apprehended. That effort, however, proved unsuccessful.

On April 16, 2008, the police tracked the defendant to a residence on Congress Avenue in Watertown, where he was found hiding in a closet. The defendant refused to comply with the commands of the police to...