Argued
May 2, 2018
Procedural
History
Substitute
information, in the first case, charging the defendant with
three counts of the crime of risk of injury to a child and
two counts of the crime of sexual assault in the first
degree, and information, in the second case, charging the
defendant with violation of probation, brought to the
Superior Court in the judicial district of Hartford, where
the first case was tried to the jury before Suarez,
J.; verdict of guilty of two counts of risk of injury to
a child; thereafter, the defendant was presented to the court
in the second case on a plea of guilty; judgments in
accordance with the verdict and the plea, from which the
defendant appealed to the Appellate Court, Lavine
and Sheldon, Js., with Flynn, J.,
dissenting, which affirmed the trial court's judgments,
and the defendant, on the granting of certification, appealed
to this court. Reversed; further
proceedings.
Glenn
W. Falk, assigned counsel, with whom, on the brief, was
Robert M. Black, for the appellant (defendant).
Bruce
R. Lockwood, senior assistant state's attorney, with
whom, on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, state's attorney,
John F. Fahey, senior assistant state's attorney, and
Lisa Herskowitz, former senior assistant state's
attorney, for the appellee (state).
Palmer, McDonald, Robinson, D'Auria, Mullins, Kahn and
Vertefeuille, Js. [**]
OPINION
PER
CURIAM.
The
common-law corpus delicti rule ‘‘prohibits a
prosecutor from proving the [fact of a transgression] based
solely on a defendant's extrajudicial
statements.'' (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
State v. Leniart, 333 Conn. 88, 97, __A.3d__(2019).
Following a jury trial, the defendant in the present case,
Robert H., was convicted of two counts of risk of injury to a
child, in violation of General Statutes § 53-21 (a) (1),
arising from two alleged incidents of sexual
misconduct.[1] On appeal, he argued before the Appellate
Court that the only evidence that he committed the second
alleged act of misconduct were statements he made to the
police and, therefore, that his conviction on that count
violated the corpus delicti rule. Because the defendant did
not raise the corpus delicti issue or challenge the
admissibility of his statements at trial, and because the
Appellate Court was of the view that corpus delicti is merely
an evidentiary rule that must be raised at trial to be
reviewable on appeal, that court concluded that his claim was
unreviewable.[2] State v. Robert H., 168 Conn.App.
419, 422, 146 A.3d 995 (2016). We granted certification,
limited to the following question: ‘‘Did the
Appellate Court properly conclude that the corpus delicti
rule is merely a rule of admissibility, in determining that
there was sufficient evidence to sustain the defendant's
second conviction of risk of injury to a child in violation
of . . . § 53-21 (a) (1)?'' State v. Robert
H., 323 Conn. 940, 151 A.3d 845 (2016).
Ina
companion case that we decide today, we answer that question,
concluding that our corpus delicti rule is a hybrid
evidentiary-substantive rule that implicates a
defendant's fundamental right not to be convicted in the
absence of evidence sufficient to establish every essential
element of the charged crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and,
therefore, even unpreserved corpus delicti claims are
reviewable on appeal. See State v. Leniart, supra,
333 Conn. 110. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the
Appellate Court and remand the case to that court for full
consideration of the merits of the defendant's corpus
delicti claim.[3]
The
judgment of the Appellate Court is reversed and the case is
remanded to that court for further proceedings in accordance
with this opinion.
---------
Notes:
[*] In
accordance with our policy of protecting the privacy
interests of the victims of the crime of risk of injury to a
child, we decline to use the defendant's full name or to
identify the victim or others through whom the victim's
identity may be ascertained. See General Statutes §
54-86e.
[**]
The listing of justices reflects their seniority status on
this court as of the date of ...