Argued
September 23, 2019
Superior
Court, Judicial District of Fairfield, Kahn, J.
Page 799
[Copyrighted Material Omitted]
Page 800
Katherine C. Essington, assigned counsel, for the appellant
(defendant).
Rocco
A. Chiarenza, assistant states attorney, with whom, on the
brief, were John C. Smriga, states attorney, and Howard S.
Stein, senior assistant states attorney, for the appellee
(state).
Palmer,
McDonald, DAuria, Mullins, Ecker and Vertefeuille, Js.
OPINION
ECKER,
J.
[334
Conn. 300] The sole issue in this certified appeal is whether
the defendants conviction of conspiracy to commit robbery in
the first degree in violation of General Statutes § § 53a-48
and 53a-134 (a) (2) should be reversed under the plain error
doctrine due to an alleged error in the trial courts jury
instructions. The defendant, Jayevon Blaine, contends that
the trial court improperly failed to instruct the jury on an
essential element of the crime as required by State v.
Pond, 138 Conn.App. 228, 238-39, 50 A.3d 950 (2012),
affd, 315 Conn. 451, 108 A.3d 1083 (2015), namely, that he
agreed and specifically intended that he or another
participant in the robbery would be "armed with a deadly
weapon ...." General Statutes § 53a-134 (a) (2). The
Appellate Court held that there was no "obvious and
undebatable error" in the trial courts jury
instructions because the relevant instructions
"logically required the jury to find that the defendant
had agreed that a participant would be armed with a deadly
weapon." State v. Blaine, 179 Conn.App. 499,
510, 180 A.3d 622 (2018). The Appellate Court also held that,
even if the instructions were erroneous, there was no
manifest injustice necessitating reversal of the defendants
conviction because "[e]very witness who testified that
the agreement existed also testified that use of a weapon was
contemplated." Id., at 511, 180 A.3d 622. We
affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.
Page 801
The
jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On
September 6, 2009, Jihad Clemons and Craig Waddell devised a
plan to rob a drug dealer named [334 Conn. 301] Robert Taylor
of his money, drugs, cell phone, and car. They discussed
their plan with their friends, Hank Palmer and Michael Lomax,
both of whom agreed to participate. At some point, Lomax,
Clemons, and Waddell went to the home of another friend,
DeAndre Harper, to inquire whether he wanted to join them in
the robbery. Harper declined the invitation, but the
defendant, who is Harpers cousin and who was living with
Harper at the time, agreed to participate.
Clemons,
Waddell, Palmer, Lomax, and the defendant decided to use a
nine millimeter handgun to accomplish the robbery. Clemons
called Taylor and arranged a meeting near the Blackham School
in Bridgeport, purportedly to purchase marijuana. At around 9
p.m., Lomax drove Waddell, Palmer, and the
defendant[1] in Lomax white Honda to wait for
Taylor near the Blackham School.
Taylor
arrived at the Blackham School with the victim, Kevin Soler,
and the victims girlfriend, Priscilla LaBoy. It was very
dark that night, and the three waited in the car until they
saw someone dressed in dark clothing and a hoodie
approaching. The victim exited the car to conduct the drug
transaction on Taylors behalf. LaBoy heard the victim say
that the two men knew each other from a party, and the
individual in the hoodie then backed away and accused the
victim of having a gun. The victim responded that he was
unarmed and lifted up his shirt, at which point the
individual in the hoodie pulled out his own gun and shot the
victim multiple times at close range, killing him. The
shooter instructed LaBoy to get out of the car, and she
complied. Taylor also exited the car and began to run away.
The shooter chased after Taylor, firing his gun two more
times. LaBoy ran away from the scene of the shooting [334
Conn. 302] but later returned, at which point she saw a white
car drive by and slow down as it passed by Taylors car and
the victims body.
Two
days later, at approximately 5:40 a.m., the police arrived at
the home of Harper and the defendant to execute two arrest
warrants unrelated to the events in this case. They found the
defendant, Harper, and Harpers younger brother sleeping in
the same bedroom. During a search of the bedroom, the police
uncovered two firearms from under the mattress on which
Harper and his brother had been sleeping. Later testing
revealed that one of those firearms had been used in the
fatal shooting of the victim.
The
defendant subsequently was arrested and charged with the
murder of Soler in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a
(a), felony murder in violation of General Statutes §
53a-54c, attempt to commit robbery in the first degree in
violation of General Statutes § § 53a-49 and 53a-134 (a) (2),
and conspiracy to commit robbery in the first degree in
violation of § § 53a-48 and 53a-134 (a) (2). Following a jury
trial, at which the defendants coconspirators Clemons,
Waddell, Lomax, and Palmer testified, the jury found the
defendant not guilty of the crimes of murder, felony murder,
and attempt to commit robbery in the first degree, but guilty
of the crime of ...