State v. Miles

132 Conn.App. 550

32 A.3d 969

STATE of Connecticut

v.Tyronesha MILES.

No. 32421.

Appellate Court of Connecticut.

Argued Oct. 18, 2011.Decided Dec. 20, 2011.

Elizabeth M. Inkster, senior assistant public defender, with whom, on the brief, was Silvia Knox–Delamar, certified legal intern, for the appellant (defendant).

Linda F. Currie–Zeffiro, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were John C. Smriga, state's attorney, and Margaret E. Kelley, senior assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).

DiPENTIMA, C.J., and GRUENDEL and FLYNN, Js.

FLYNN, J.

The defendant, Tyronesha Miles, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a trial by jury, of attempt to commit murder in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a–49 and 53a–54 (a), and assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a–59 (a)(1) arising out of the stabbing of Devore Anderson with a knife two times in the abdomen and three times in the back. The defendant claims that (1) the trial court improperly excluded evidence that Anderson had been stabbed five years earlier in an unrelated incident by an unidentified assailant, (2) the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction because the state failed to use forensic evidence to prove the identity of the perpetrator and (3) the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction because the state failed to prove that the defendant was the perpetrator. Because we conclude that the defendant never established any direct connection between the stabbing for which she was charged and the prior incident to establish its relevancy, and the trial evidence was sufficient, if believed, to establish the identity of the defendant as the person who committed the crimes charged, we affirm the judgment of conviction.

The following facts that the jury could have reasonably found inform our review. This case arises out of an August 7, 2009 assault that occurred in Bridgeport's P.T. Barnum housing project. Anderson, however, also had been stabbed years earlier. No one identified that prior assailant as a person who fought with or stabbed Anderson in 2009.

In the late evening on August 7, 2009, two fights occurred between Anderson and the defendant. Anderson had known the defendant from the neighborhood prior to the first fight.

It is clear that the first fight commenced over remarks attributed to Anderson made earlier about Tameka King. Anderson admitted striking the defendant with a belt. Others were involved in this first fight, including Anderson's sister, Taiwan Porter, who attempted to break it up. Porter got a good look at the defendant during the first fight. Ultimately, an unidentified man came upon the scene and broke up the fight.

The second incident occurred later in the evening. There was evidence before the jury that Anderson had remained on the scene of the first fight for approximately twenty minutes after it had ended, looking for lost money. She then left the area where the first fight had occurred and headed on to Shell Street. Anderson saw a person walking toward her, whose head was obscured by a hooded jacket, whom she first thought was a male. Streetlights were on but were dim. However, as the hooded person came closer to her she recognized the defendant, a female, by her gait and hair. She saw the defendant holding a knife. The defendant then said to Anderson: “[Y]ou wanna use weapons. I'll kill you, bitch.” The defendant then stabbed Anderson twice in the abdomen and three times in the back, causing severe bleeding from the wounds that required hospitalization and surgery. Anderson saw the defendant's girlfriend, Tameka King, standing on the corner of Shell Street and Ocean Terrace right before the defendant stabbed Anderson. When Anderson's sister, Taiwan Porter, came to her defense, Anderson identified her assailant as “Ty.” ¹ Officer Milton Johnson also testified that Anderson exclaimed, “Ty did it,” in response to his questioning of her at the crime scene.

I

The defendant first claims that the trial court improperly excluded evidence that she proffered that Anderson had been stabbed by another person several years earlier and that the exclusion of this evidence “violated [her] right to due process and to present a defense, as guaranteed by the fifth, sixth and fourteenth amendments to the United States constitution and by article first, § 8, of the Connecticut constitution....” We are not persuaded.

At the outset we note that the defendant did not alert the trial court to claims under the state constitution. We do not review the state constitutional claims because the defendant does not make the separate analysis of the state constitutional claims that our Supreme Court required in State v. Geisler, 222 Conn. 672, 684–86, 610 A.2d 1225 (1992). See also State v. Robertson, 254 Conn. 739, 743 n. 5, 760 A.2d 82 (2000).

Our review standard as to this type of third party culpability claim requires that we analyze the proffered evidence to determine whether it is relevant to the issue of whether someone other than the defendant committed the crimes with which the defendant was charged. State v. West, 274 Conn. 605, 625, 877 A.2d 787, cert. denied, 546 U.S. 1049, 126 S.Ct. 775, 163 L.Ed.2d 601 (2005). The defendant never made any claim of violation of federal constitutional rights before the trial judge, which she now asserts for the first time on appeal. Her claim at trial was evidentiary. She now requests review under State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233, 239–40, 567 A.2d 823 (1989). Her Golding claim fails because she has not shown that a constitutional violation clearly exists, as Golding requires. This is so because she has failed to show that evidence of third party culpability was relevant or exculpatory. Although Connecticut consistently has recognized that a defendant has a right to introduce such evidence, “[t]he defendant must, [in such cases], present evidence that directly connects a third party to the crime....” (Emphasis added; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. West, supra, at 625, 877 A.2d 787. Although the defendant frames the appellate issue as one of a constitutional violation and evidentiary error, our ultimate conclusion turns on evidentiary grounds. Our Supreme Court has held that a defendant's constitutional right to present a defense “does not require the trial court to forgo completely restraints on the admissibility of evidence.... Generally, an accused must comply with established rules of procedure and evidence in exercising his right to present a defense.... A defendant, therefore, may introduce only relevant evidence, and, if the proffered evidence is not relevant, its exclusion is proper and the defendant's right is not violated.” (Citations omitted.) State v. Cerreta, 260 Conn. 251, 261, 796 A.2d 1176 (2002); State v. Eagles, 74 Conn.App. 332, 335, 812 A.2d 124 (2002), cert. denied, 262 Conn. 953, 818 A.2d 781 (2003).

“Relevant evidence is evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is material to the determination of the proceeding more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. West, supra, 274 Conn. at 625, 877 A.2d 787; Conn.Code Evid. § 4–1.

In an offer of proof at trial, the defendant's counsel sought to elicit testimony that five years previously Anderson had been stabbed. However, the state objected on the ground of relevance. After eliciting that testimony outside the jury's presence, defense counsel represented to the court that there was “another individual who was present at the time, who stabbed this victim.” Counsel never offered to prove that this third party was the same party who committed the earlier stabbing assault. The defendant sought, through evidence of a stabbing assault five years earlier, to make out a defense of third party culpability. The defense counsel then sought to amplify the offer of the disputed evidence. He told the court: “Normally, people don't walk around getting stabbed, so, the fact that there's going to be testimony that it was somebody else and the fact that she's been stabbed prior, lends credence, I believe, of probative value to the anticipated testimony, and it backs up the anticipated testimony to some degree.” The court excluded the evidence on the ground that it was irrelevant. The court ruled that the fact that someone else had stabbed Anderson several years earlier did not have probative value in the present case. However, the court advised counsel that if he later thought that the record had changed, he could ask the court to reconsider its ruling.

Accordingly, in explaining the requirement that the proffered evidence establish a direct connection to a third party, rather than raise merely a bare suspicion regarding a third party, our Supreme Court has stated: “Such evidence is relevant, exculpatory evidence, rather than merely tenuous evidence of third party culpability [introduced by a defendant] in an attempt to divert from himself the evidence of guilt.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Arroyo, 284 Conn. 597, 609, 935 A.2d 975 (2007); State v. Smith, 280 Conn. 285, 304, 907 A.2d 73 (2006). That relevancy standard requires that there be a direct connection to the third party alleged to have committed the crime.

In the defendant's proffer to the trial court, there was a complete absence of any evidence that directly connected a third party to the crimes for which the defendant had been charged. See State v. West, supra, 274 Conn. at 625, 877 A.2d 787. There was no evidence offered outside the jury's presence in the offer of proof about the physical appearance and features of the person who had stabbed Anderson years earlier. There was no evidence proffered as to the name or identity of the person who had stabbed Anderson several years earlier, nor was there any evidence proffered that this unnamed individual was at the scene on...