State v. Arnold
State v. Arnold
Opinion of the Court
Opinion
The defendant, Thomas Arnold, appeals from the judgment of conviction rendered following his conditional plea of nolo contendere
On August 16, 2004, Officer Jared Turner and Detective James Hicks of the Brookfield police department obtained a search warrant for the defendant’s residence on the basis of information that the defendant’s nineteen year old son, Skylar Arnold, was selling cocaine at the residence and also manufacturing crack cocaine there. At that time, both the defendant and his son were awaiting sentencing on prior convictions of drag offenses. Before Tinner and Hicks could execute the
The defendant filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized during the search of the Brookfield residence on the ground that the warrant was stale. The defendant argued that his son had moved out of the Brookfield residence and established a new residence at the Dan-bury hotel so that the police therefore lacked probable cause to search the Brookfield residence as soon as they learned that the defendant’s son was renting the hotel room in Danbury. The court denied the motion to suppress, finding that the warrant for the Brookfield residence had been executed within the ten day period provided by General Statutes § 54-33c (a),
In claiming that the court improperly denied his motion to suppress, the defendant concedes that the warrant for the Brookfield residence was issued properly on August 16, 2004, but he argues that the warrant had become stale by August 24, 2004, when the police obtained a warrant for the Danbury hotel room that the defendant’s son was renting. We disagree.
“Our standard of review of a trial court’s findings and conclusions in connection with a motion to suppress is well defined. A finding of fact will not be disturbed unless it is clearly erroneous in view of the evidence and pleadings in the whole record .... [W]here the legal conclusions of the court are challenged, we must determine whether they are legally and logically correct and whether they find support in the facts set out in the memorandum of decision . . . .” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Straub, 90 Conn. App. 147, 150, 877 A.2d 866, cert. denied, 275 Conn. 927, 883 A.2d 1252 (2005).
“Situations may arise where a search warrant executed within the time limits set by statute, may not be timely enough to meet the requirement of reasonableness and therefore would be violative of the defendant’s fourth amendment rights. The question of whether a warrant was executed in a reasonable time is one to be determined according to the facts and circumstances in each case.” State v. Burgos, 7 Conn. App. 265, 271, 508 A.2d 795 (1986).
Examining the facts and circumstances of the present case, we conclude that the court properly denied the
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
General Statutes § 54-94a provides in relevant part: “When a defendant, prior to the commencement of trial, enters a plea of nolo contendere conditional on the right to take an appeal from the court’s denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress . . . the defendant after the imposition of sentence may file an appeal within the time prescribed by law provided a trial court has determined that a ruling on such motion to suppress . . . would be dispositive of the case. The issue to be considered in such an appeal shall be limited to whether it was proper for the court to have denied the motion to suppress . . . .” See also Practice Book § 61-6 (a) (2) (i).
General Statutes § 54-33c (a) provides in relevant part that “[t]he warrant shall be executed within ten days and returned with reasonable promptness consistent with due process of law . . . .”
The court enhanced the defendant’s sentence pursuant to General Statutes § 53a-40b because he was on presentence release at the time he committed the crimes of which he was convicted.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.