Argued
April 16, 2019
Appeal
from the Superior Court, Judicial District of Hartford,
Bentivegna, J.
Page 478
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
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[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
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Erica
A. Barber, assigned counsel, for the appellant (defendant).
Timothy
J. Sugrue, Rocky Hill, assistant states attorney, with whom,
on the brief, were Gail P. Hardy, states attorney, and
Robert J. Scheinblum, Rocky Hill and Donna Mambrino,
Manchester, senior assistant states attorneys, for the
appellee (state).
Keller,
Prescott and Moll, Js.
OPINION
MOLL,
J.
[193
Conn.App. 287] The defendant, Carlton Bryan, appeals from the
judgment of conviction,[1] rendered after a jury trial, of
murder in violation of General Statutes § § 53a-54a
(a)[2] and 53a-8,[3] and conspiracy to commit
Page 481
murder in violation of General Statutes § § 53a-48
(a)[4] and [193 Conn.App. 288] 53a-54a (a).
On appeal, the defendant claims that (1) the trial court
erroneously concluded that an unavailable declarants hearsay
statements were admissible as dual inculpatory statements
pursuant to § 8-6 (4) of the Connecticut Code of Evidence,
and (2) the state, in violation of Brady v.
Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87, 83 S.Ct. 1194');">83 S.Ct. 1194, 10 L.Ed.2d 215
(1963), failed to disclose to him certain internal affairs
records relating to Reginald Early, a police sergeant whom
the state called as a witness at trial. We affirm the
judgment of the trial court.
On the
basis of the evidence adduced at trial, the jury reasonably
could have found the following facts. In April, 2013, the
victim, Shamari Jenkins, was four months pregnant with the
defendants child. At that time, the defendant had a minor
child with another woman, Iesha Wimbush, with whom the
defendant had an "off and on" relationship. On
several occasions after learning of the victims pregnancy,
the defendant encouraged the victim to have an abortion.
After initially informing the defendant that she would have
an abortion, the victim told the defendant that she
ultimately had decided not to proceed with an abortion. The
victims decision angered and upset the defendant because the
victims pregnancy was a source of contention between the
defendant and Wimbush.
Having
failed to convince the victim to have an abortion, the
defendant plotted with Matthew Allen Hall-Davis, a close
friend of his, to kill the victim and terminate the
pregnancy. Sometime in March, 2013, the defendant asked
Reginald Lewis, a former coworker of his, to clean and repair
a firearm, a .44 magnum Ruger Super Black Hawk revolver (.44
Ruger). Lewis was unable to fix the .44 Ruger and returned
it, along with certain gun components that the defendant had
ordered for the repair, to the defendant. Hall-Davis, who was
present when Lewis returned the .44 Ruger to the defendant,
told Lewis that he would fix the .44 Ruger. At [193 Conn.App.
289] some time prior to the morning of April 29, 2013, the
defendant and Hall-Davis repaired the .44 Ruger.
On
April 28, 2013, the defendant, the victim, and Hall-Davis
attended a cookout at the home of the victims father in East
Hartford. The defendant and Hall-Davis left the cookout
together at about dusk. At approximately 11 p.m. that night,
the defendant and Hall-Davis met with Everett Walker, a
cousin of Hall-Davis, near Walkers apartment building
located on Magnolia Street in Hartford. The defendant told
Walker that he was having "problems" with the
victim stemming from the victims refusal to have an abortion
and that he wanted to kill the victim in the vicinity of
Walkers apartment building. The defendant asked Walker to
provide assistance by acting as a lookout and by telling the
police officers who would be dispatched to the crime scene
that he had observed an unknown individual running away from
the scene. Walker did not respond to the defendants request
and returned to his apartment alone.
Sometime between 12 and 12:30 a.m. on April 29, 2013, the
victim left her fathers cookout and met with the defendant,
whom
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she then drove in her car to Magnolia Street, where the
defendant purportedly intended to meet with and collect money
from a cousin of his. The victim parked her car along the
curb of the street, and the defendant exited the car. At
about that time, Hall-Davis had driven and parked the
defendants car on an adjacent street. After the defendant
had returned to and reentered the victims car, the victim
began driving away from the curb. At that moment, Hall-Davis
approached the car and, using the .44 Ruger, fired a single
gunshot through the rear windshield of the car, striking the
victim. The car then accelerated and crashed into the front
stairs of a nearby home. The defendant proceeded to call 911
to report that the victim had been shot, without identifying
the shooter.
[193
Conn.App. 290] At approximately 1 a.m. on April 29, 2013,
Officer Jay Szepanski of the Hartford Police Department was
dispatched to the area of Magnolia Street and Mather Street
in Hartford to investigate a reported shooting. When he
arrived at the scene, Szepanski found the defendant in the
street yelling and waving him down. Szepanski found the
victim slumped between the front seats of her car and
unresponsive. The defendant told Szepanski that the victim
had given him a ride to meet with his cousin and that, after
he had returned to the car, an unidentified individual fired
a gunshot through the rear windshield of the car that struck
the victim.[5] Shortly thereafter, medical personnel
arrived and transported the victim to Saint Francis Hospital
and Medical Center (hospital) in Hartford, where she was
pronounced dead as a result of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Later
in the morning on April 29, 2013, Szepanski transported the
defendant to the Hartford Police Department and thereafter to
the hospital. Early, who was at the time a detective in the
Hartford Police Departments major crimes division but later
was promoted to sergeant, briefly spoke with the defendant at
the police station and later at the hospital. With respect to
the victims murder, the defendant told Early that an unknown
individual had attempted to rob the defendant and the victim
while they were sitting in the victims car, the victim tried
to drive away to escape the attempted robbery, and, as the
victim was driving away, the individual fired into the car a
gunshot that struck the victim. The defendant did not provide
a written statement at that time.
Later
that same day, after Early had spoken with the defendant at
the hospital, the defendant met with Hall-Davis and drove him
to the Hartford Police Department. [193 Conn.App. 291] There,
Hall-Davis had a conversation with Early about the victims
murder; however, he declined to provide a written statement
at that time.[6] Following Hall-Davis conversation
with Early, the defendant picked up Hall-Davis from the
police station.
On May
1, 2013, the defendant met with Early at the Hartford Police
Department and submitted a signed, sworn statement regarding
the victims murder. In that statement, the defendant averred
that an individual nicknamed "Low," whose real name
was Kevan Simmons, attempted to rob the defendant and the
victim while they were sitting in the victims car, and that
Simmons shot the victim as she tried to drive away. The
defendant further averred that he did not immediately
identify
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Simmons as the shooter to the police because the defendant
wanted to get revenge on Simmons himself, but, after giving
it more thought, the defendant decided to inform the police
that Simmons had shot the victim. Following an ensuing
investigation, Early ruled out Simmons as a suspect in the
victims murder.
On the
day of the victims funeral, which was held sometime before
May 11, 2013, Hall-Davis met with Kingsley Minto, a mutual
friend of his and the defendants, at Mintos home in Vernon.
Hall-Davis confessed to Minto that he had killed the victim
at the defendants behest in order to terminate the victims
pregnancy. Hall-Davis told Minto that he initially was
reluctant to comply with the defendants request to kill the
victim; however, after the defendant repeatedly had pleaded
with him, Hall-Davis agreed to commit the crime because he
felt obligated to assist the defendant on account that,
during the course of their friendship, the defendant had
provided him with financial support, written letters to him
while he had been incarcerated, [193 Conn.App. 292] and
permitted him to stay at the defendants home. Hall-Davis
then asked Minto for money so that he could flee the area.
Minto replied that he had no money to give to Hall-Davis.
On May
11, 2013, Minto and Hall-Davis robbed a jewelry store in
Manchester (Manchester robbery). Hall-Davis brandished the
.44 Ruger in the course of the Manchester robbery, which was
recorded on surveillance video. As Hall-Davis and Minto were
driving away from the jewelry store, Hall-Davis tossed out of
the car window a shell casing, which Hall-Davis told Minto
was from the bullet that he had fired at the victim. Later
that day, Hall-Davis and Minto drove to a park in Vernon,
where Hall-Davis hid the .44 Ruger under some leaves and
brush.
At
some point after the Manchester robbery, the defendant and
Hall-Davis met with one another in Hartford. The defendant
asked Hall-Davis where the .44 Ruger was, and Hall-Davis
replied that he had gotten rid of it. The defendant, using
his cell phone, then showed Hall-Davis video footage of the
Manchester robbery that he had found on the Internet, which
depicted Hall-Davis holding the .44 Ruger during the
Manchester robbery. Evidently having had the belief that
Hall-Davis had disposed of the .44 Ruger immediately after
the victims murder, the defendant became upset that
Hall-Davis had lied to him about the disposal of the .44
Ruger, after which Hall-Davis left.
In the
middle of May, 2013, the defendant traveled to Florida to
stay with his father. While he was in Florida, the defendant
called Early on numerous occasions to convey that Hall-Davis
and Minto had committed the Manchester robbery. Early shared
that information with the Manchester Police Department, and,
largely on the basis of that information, the Manchester
Police Department secured arrest warrants for Hall-Davis and
Minto [193 Conn.App. 293] in connection with the Manchester
robbery. Hall-Davis was arrested on May 23, 2013, and Minto
turned himself in to the police on May 25, 2013. While in
police custody, Minto admitted to his involvement in the
Manchester robbery and assisted the police in locating and
retrieving the .44 Ruger that Hall-Davis had hidden in the
park in Vernon.
After
turning himself in to the police, Minto also submitted a
signed, sworn statement regarding the victims murder. On the
basis of information that he obtained during the course of
his investigation from, inter alia, Minto, Hall-Davis, and
Lewis, Early secured arrest ...