State v. Mitchell
State v. Mitchell
Opinion
The defendant, Yuwell Mitchell, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered following a jury trial, on the charges of sale of a narcotic substance in violation of General Statutes § 21a-278 (b) and sale of a narcotic substance within 1500 feet of a school in violation of General Statutes § 21a-278a (b). On appeal, the defendant claims that the trial court's jury instruction to continue deliberations after the jury reported that it was unable to reach a verdict violated his right to a fair trial by coercing the jurors to reach a unanimous verdict without providing a cautionary reminder of their duties as individual jurors not to agree to a verdict unless they personally agree to it under the court's instructions as applied to the evidence before them. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.
The jury was presented with evidence of the following facts. On May 6, 2012, the New Haven Police Department engaged Zerline Savage as a cooperating witness 1 in an attempt to make a controlled purchase of narcotics. 2 Officers of the New Haven Police Department and Savage met at the predetermined location of Science Park. After Savage was searched to ensure that she did not have any money or drugs on her person, the officers gave her department issued money with which to complete a controlled purchase. In addition, the officers gave her an audio-video recording device disguised as a key fob that she was to carry in her hand when she made the controlled purchase.
Savage was sent to buy narcotics. She made contact with the defendant outside of a convenience store in the area, and asked him if "he [had] anything." The defendant appeared upset to Savage, muttered something, and entered the convenience store. Shortly thereafter, the defendant exited the convenience store and walked away. At some point thereafter, Savage entered a motor vehicle in which the defendant was sitting in the driver's seat. While sitting in the motor vehicle, Savage purchased crack cocaine from the defendant. 3 This exchange, which took place while the witness' hidden recording device was operating, occurred within 1500 feet of Celentano Museum Academy, a public elementary school. Following the purchase, Savage returned to the location of the officers, where she handed them the crack cocaine and the recording device. The officers again searched Savage, and then they and Savage viewed the recording together on a computer located in the officers' vehicle.
The defendant was arrested on June 30, 2012, and charged with sale of a narcotic substance in violation of § 21a-278 (b) and sale of a narcotic substance within 1500 feet of a school in violation of § 21a-278a (b). A jury trial commenced on May 22, 2014, and deliberations began on May 27, 2014. On May 28, 2014, the jury informed the court that it could not reach an agreement. 4 In response, the court 5 proposed an instruction that the jury continue deliberating, and review the evidence and the position of each juror to ensure that nothing had been misunderstood or overlooked. Defense counsel objected to the proposed instruction, stating that he was concerned that the jury, if so instructed, would feel compelled to reach a verdict. 6 Defense counsel, however, did not recommend any specific language that would satisfy his concern.
The court determined that its proposed instruction would not suggest to the jury that it had to reach a verdict and that the instruction was an appropriate response to the jury's note. It therefore delivered the following instruction at approximately 11 a.m.: "I'm going to say the following to you, ladies and gentlemen, and then you will continue with your deliberations. By the court's estimation, you have been deliberating for approximately three hours. I know you started yesterday afternoon, and you came in here a little bit after 10:00 today. At this point, I simply suggest that you continue your deliberations. You should review the evidence and the positions of each juror to determine if any evidence has been overlooked or any juror's position misunderstood with respect to either the evidence or the law. Please continue to listen to what each other has to say. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. You will continue with your deliberations."
After approximately five and one-half hours of deliberations, the jury announced that it had reached a verdict. 7 It found the defendant guilty on both charges. He was sentenced to a total effective sentence of five years of imprisonment, execution suspended after one year, followed by three years of probation. The defendant filed this appeal.
The defendant claims that the court's jury instruction to continue deliberations violated his right to a fair trial. Specifically, he contends that the court's jury instruction lacked cautionary language informing jurors to balance their duty to listen to their fellow jurors against their duty not to surrender their own conscientiously held views of the evidence merely to reach a unanimous verdict. The defendant further contends that, by not informing the jury that it was not compelled to reach a verdict, the court effectively informed the jury that it was required to reach a verdict. The defendant claims that these instructional errors operated to coerce the jury in conducting its deliberations and in reaching a guilty verdict. We disagree.
At the outset, we must address whether the defendant failed to preserve his claim at trial. We conclude that the defendant's claim was not preserved. Accordingly, a
Golding
analysis is required.
8
Under
Golding
, as modified in
In re Yasiel R.
,
The defendant's claim is reviewable inasmuch as it satisfies the first two prongs of
Golding
, as the record is adequate for review of the defendant's claim, and the claim is of constitutional magnitude. See
State v. Hampton
,
Our resolution of the defendant's claim with regard to the third prong of
Golding
is pursuant to the following legal principles. "It is well settled that jury instructions are to be reviewed in their entirety.... When the challenge to a jury instruction is of constitutional magnitude, the standard of review is whether it is reasonably possible that the jury [was] misled.... In determining whether it was ... reasonably possible that the jury was misled by the trial court's instructions, the charge to the jury is not to be critically dissected for the purpose of discovering possible inaccuracies of statement .... Individual instructions also are not to be judged in artificial isolation .... Instead, [t]he test to be applied ... is whether the charge ... as a whole, presents the case to the jury so that no injustice will result." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
State v. Alonzo
,
Since 1881, our Supreme Court has approved of instructing deadlocked juries that they should continue to deliberate, with minority view jurors considering the logic of the majority view jurors as they did so. See
State v. Smith
,
To ensure that such a cautionary reminder be given by our trial courts in future cases, our Supreme Court adopted the following language as a model instruction: "The instructions that I shall give you now are only to provide you with additional information so that you may return to your deliberations and see whether you can arrive at a verdict.
"Along these lines, I would like to state the following to you. The verdict to which each of you agrees must express your own conclusion and not merely the acquiescence in the conclusion of your fellow jurors. Yet, in order to bring your minds to a unanimous result, you should consider the question you have to decide not only carefully but also with due regard and deference to the opinions of each other.
"In conferring together, you ought to pay proper respect to each other's opinions and listen with an open mind to each other's arguments. If the much greater number of you reach a certain conclusion, dissenting jurors should consider whether their opinion is a reasonable one when the evidence does not lend itself to a similar result in the minds of so many of you who are equally honest and equally intelligent, who have heard the same evidence with an equal desire to arrive at the truth and under the sanctions of the same oath.
"But please remember this. Do not ever change your mind just because other jurors see things differently or to get the case over with. As I told you before, in the end, your vote must be exactly that-your own vote. As important as it is for you to reach a unanimous agreement, it is just as important that you do so honestly and in good conscience.
"What I have said to you is not intended to rush you into agreeing on a verdict. Take as much time as you need to discuss the matter. There is no need to hurry." (Emphasis omitted.) Id., at 74-75,
Since O'Neil , our courts have used such cautionary language in what has become known as a Chip Smith charge when instructing a deadlocked jury to consider the majority view. Such language is not required, however, when the court merely tells jurors to continue deliberating without instructing them in a potentially coercive manner. In the present case, the court merely told the jurors to continue deliberating after the jury reported that it was unable to reach a verdict. 9 Because the instruction did not include language potentially coercing the jurors to reach a unanimous verdict, it did not require a cautionary reminder to the jurors of their individual duties not to agree to a verdict unless they personally agreed to it under the court's instructions as applied to the evidence before them. Thus, we conclude that the court's instruction to continue deliberations did not violate the defendant's right to a fair trial.
The record shows that, when the jury was having difficulty reaching an agreement, the court gave a brief instruction to the jury to continue its deliberations. The thrust of this instruction "was not to change any juror's attitude or approach to the deliberations."
State v. Moore
,
Moreover, the court's decision not to instruct the jurors that they were not compelled to reach a verdict did not effectively coerce the jurors into reaching a unanimous verdict. Although our Supreme Court has approved the inclusion of cautionary language related to reaching a verdict;
State v. O'Neill
,
Furthermore, we reject the defendant's argument that
State v. Feliciano
,
In the present case, the defendant claims that
Feliciano
included an incomplete
Chip Smith charge allegedly cured by subsequent appropriate Chip Smith charges that contained language to prevent jurors from being compelled to change their opinions. The defendant's reliance on
Feliciano
, however, is misplaced. While the defendant correctly concludes that the language of the charge determines whether it is coercive; id., at 440, 441,
On the basis of our review of the court's charge, we conclude that the court's instruction to continue deliberations did not include language coercing the jury to reach a verdict, and, therefore, the court was not required to provide a cautionary reminder to jurors of their individual duties to give their own verdict without surrendering their conscientiously held beliefs. Accordingly, we conclude that the defendant has failed to satisfy the third prong of Golding and cannot prevail on his claim.
The judgment is affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
Detective Ryan McFarland of the New Haven Police Department defined a cooperating witness as a person who enters into a formal agreement with the New Haven Police Department to assist in the investigation of criminal violations occurring in the city of New Haven. The cooperating witness is paid forty dollars for every controlled purchase of narcotics completed.
Testimony varied on whether the defendant was the specific target from whom Savage was to purchase narcotics on May 6, 2012. In his testimony, Lieutenant Doug Harkins stated that Savage was not given a specific target from whom she was to purchase narcotics. Detective McFarland and Savage, on the other hand, both testified that the defendant was the target. Savage, however, also testified that it was her idea, not that of the police, to target the defendant for the controlled purchase.
A detective performed a test on a small portion of the substance purchased by Savage, and it tested positive for crack cocaine. A forensic science examiner with the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection later confirmed the substance as crack cocaine.
The court received several notes from the jury. The note relevant to this appeal was received on May 28, 2014, at approximately 10:27 a.m. and stated: "It seems that we are unable to reach an agreement."
Judge Thomas O'Keefe presided over the trial. On May 28, 2014, however, the day of the charge in question and the jury verdict, Judge O'Keefe could not be there, and, as a result, Judge Brian Fischer took his place.
Counsel for the defendant stated: "I just want to make sure that the jury doesn't feel that they have to reach a verdict. If that-if you understand what I'm saying. In other words, I don't want them being sent back in there in a position of thinking, you know, we're going to be here forever until we can come to a verdict. I don't know what language would-would have addressed those concerns, but it would be-from my standpoint, it would be helpful for them to understand that sometimes, notwithstanding what the court is instructing them to do, that there is still a possibility that-that there can be an impasse and that they are not mandated to come up with a-a verdict."
The jury had deliberated for approximately three hours between the afternoon of May 27, 2014, and the morning of May 28, 2014. At 10:50 a.m., the jury informed the court that it could not reach an agreement. Shortly thereafter, the court gave its instruction. The court recessed for lunch from approximately 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. At 2:31 p.m., the jury informed the court that it had reached a verdict.
Our Supreme Court has held that a defendant is entitled to review under
Golding
, even if he failed to specifically request it, as long as he "[raises] that claim in his main brief, wherein he must present a record that is [adequate] for review and affirmatively [demonstrate] that his claim is indeed a violation of a fundamental constitutional right." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
State v. Elson
,
According to the court, the jury's note indicating that it could not reach an agreement did not mean that the jury was deadlocked. We agree with the trial court's conclusion. The court stated: "It's not like we are completely at loggerheads. There's not a chance in the world. I mean, the language that they sent us was very-very modest, to say the least, on the question we normally get when there seem to be some difficulty with reaching a verdict."
The court in
Feliciano
instructed as follows: "Okay, folks, I have your note. It simply reads: We are unable to come to a unanimous decision on the first count. In response to that, let me tell you that when you subtract the read backs and time spent in court or in breaks, you have been deliberating for less than a full day. At this point I simply suggest that you continue your deliberations. You should review the evidence and the position of each juror to determine if any evidence has been overlooked or any juror's position misunderstood with respect to either the evidence or the law." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
State v. Feliciano
, supra,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Connecticut v. Yuwell A. MITCHELL
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published