State v. Guilbert

306 Conn. 218 (2012)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Cedric Williams and Terry Ross arrived at a bar. Ross had parked his Volvo station wagon in a nearby municipal parking lot. William Robinson arrived at the bar. About one hour later, as Robinson walked to the restroom, he was shot in the face and suffered a life-threatening wound. The police asked Robinson who had shot him. Robinson either did not respond to the question or stated that he did not know the identity of the shooter. Officer Jose Olivero responded to the call and saw D running away from the bar, clutching something in both hands. At trial, Olivero testified that D had been wearing light blue sweatpants, a white tee shirt, and a black or dark blue bomber jacket. Police received a 911 call about a shooting at the intersection of Hope and Hempstead Streets. They found Ross' Volvo station wagon crashed into a tree. Ross and Williams were inside the vehicle, and both had been shot in the head. Williams was pronounced dead at the scene and Ross at the hospital. Ross and Williams had been shot with the gun that had been used to shoot Robinson. Gary Holland drove D to Bronx County, New York. Holland returned to Connecticut and learned from watching television that three people had been shot in New London and that the police were looking for D. Holland called D and informed him of what he had learned. D neither admitted nor denied involvement in the shootings. Robinson identified D as the person who had shot him. Robinson said that, when he saw D in the bar, he had 'a bad feeling and knew something was going to happen.' At trial, Robinson denied knowing who had shot him, denied having signed the statement, and denied that the reason why he had picked D's photograph from the array was that D had shot him. Nine days after the shooting, Lashon Baldwin saw D's photograph in a newspaper and gave a statement about the incident at the intersection of Hope and Hempstead Streets. Baldwin and her cousin, Jackie Gomez, were seated in a car parked on Hempstead Street. Baldwin saw a car traveling down Hempstead Street and, as the car reached Hope Street, she heard three 'loud pops.' The car then came to a stop after hitting another parked car, and the D exited through the back door on the driver's side. The defendant was wearing 'a black flight [jacket]' and 'a black skull hat.' Baldwin recognized D and knew him as 'Fats' because she had seen him as a 'regular customer' in a donut shop where she had worked for more than one and one-half years. Baldwin and Gomez left the area immediately. Gomez gave a statement to the police nine days after the shooting. Gomez was with Baldwin in the car on Hempstead Street when he heard three gunshots. He looked to see what was happening and saw a car drive up Hope Street and hit another car. A person wearing a 'black hoodie' and 'blue jeans' exited the car and wiped the door handle with his sleeve. The person came toward the car that Gomez and Baldwin were in, and Gomez recognized him as D. Gomez knew D because they previously had lived together for 'quite some time . . . .' Gomez then left the area but returned upon learning that his cousin, Williams, had been shot. D was tried before a jury and convicted of two counts of murder. D appealed contending he should have been able to present expert testimony regarding the reliability of eyewitness testimony.