DocketNumber: AC 21730; AC 21731; AC 21732
Citation Numbers: 67 Conn. App. 734
Filed Date: 1/29/2002
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 9/8/2022
Opinion
Three of five codefendants, James Cummings, Juan Santiago and Maurice Flanagan, appeal from the judgments of conviction rendered after a joint jury trial.
The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of the defendants’ appeals. In connection with the killing of two members of the Latin Kings street gang on May 14, 1994, in New Britain, the codefendants
Following closing arguments, the court, on March 4, 1999, instructed the jury and then excused the twelve regular jurors from the courtroom, directing them to begin deliberating. Immediately thereafter, the court dismissed the two alternate jurors. When doing so, the court advised the alternate jurors that “there may or may not come a time when you get a phone call saying come on down, we need you to come in.” The court also cautioned the alternate jurors “not to discuss the case with anyone until you know there is a verdict.”
Later that same day, the court received a note from one of the regular jurors, juror A, and, in response, summoned her to the courtroom for questioning. On the basis of the information that juror A provided during her questioning, the state and the attorneys for the codefendants agreed that she should be dismissed. Cummings’ defense counsel stated to the court: “I would like to let you know that we are in agreement that she should be excused and that an alternate should be chosen in her stead . . . .” The state responded, “We agree that she should go at this point,” and suggested that the court either could substitute an alternate juror for juror A or, if the parties agreed, proceed with
The next day, another regular juror, juror P, telephoned the court and stated that he was ill with “a very serious stomach problem” and could not attend court because he was at his physician’s office. After questioning alternate juror F, whom the court randomly had selected to replace juror A, the court excused the jury until the following day. On March 8, 1999, the court, after hearing no objection, decided to recall the remaining alternate juror, juror E, as a replacement for juror P, who remained unavailable. The court questioned juror E and, later, the clerk swore in jurors F and E as regular jurors. The jury deliberated for four days before returning the following verdict: Cummings, Santiago and Flanagan each were guilty of two counts of murder, two counts of attempt to commit murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree, and each were not guilty of capital felony. Two other codefendants, Reynaldo Arroyo and Larry Gadlin, both were found not guilty as to all counts. The court rendered judgments in accordance with the verdicts. On March 14, 1999, the court sentenced Cummings, Santiago and Flanagan each to a total effective term 140 years imprisonment. These appeals followed.
The state concedes that our Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Murray, 254 Conn. 472, 757 A.2d 578 (2000) (en banc), controls and, therefore, Cummings, Santiago and Flanagan are entitled to new trials. “In Murray, [our Supreme Court] held that General Statutes (Rev.
The present appeals are controlled by the 1999 revision of § 54-82h (c)
The judgments are reversed and the cases are remanded for new trials.
The two remaining codefendants, Reynaldo Arroyo and Larry Gadlin, were acquitted of all charges.
Hereinafter, the five codefendants will be referred to collectively as “the codefendants.”
General Statutes (Rev. to 1999) § 54-82h (c) provides in relevant part: “A juror who has been selected to serve as an alternate shall not be segregated from the regular panel except when the case is given to the regular panel for deliberation at which time he shall be dismissed from further service on said case.”
See footnote 3.
We note that several weeks after our Supreme Court released the Murray decision, General Statutes § 54-82h (c) was amended, effective October 1, 2000. See Public Acts 2000, No. 00-116, §§ 6, 7. Under that amendment, which does not apply to the present cases, a court no longer is prohibited by statute from substituting an alternate juror for a regular juror after the jury has begun deliberating.