Summary
In Jenkins, during rebuttal argument, the prosecutor stated: "Where is justice in our society? Maybe when you heard that the police arrested this defendant you thought they were responsible for justice, and maybe when you heard that the information filed against him, which is in evidence, had my name on it, you thought maybe the prosecutor is responsible for justice, and as you watched Judge Hartmere presiding over this case, even managing the evidence, you thought that maybe the judge is responsible for justice, but none of that is entirely true.
Summary of this case from State v. JacobsonOpinion
(4337)
Convicted of the crimes of sexual assault in the first degree and risk of injury to a minor child in connection with assaults on his nine year old daughter, the defendant appealed to this court claiming that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting testimony by his wife that, subsequent to the defendant's arrest, she had found, in his room, magazines containing sexual pictures of children. Held that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the evidence was probative of the fact that the defendant regarded young girls as objects of sexual interest and that it was thus relevant to the charges against him.
Argued May 6, 1986 —
Decision released June 10, 1986
Amended information charging the defendant with the crimes of sexual assault in the first degree and risk of injury to a minor, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of New Haven and tried to the jury before Norcott, J.; verdict and judgment of guilty of each crime, from which the defendant appealed to this court. No error.
The appellant filed a motion for reargument which was denied.
Donald D. Dakers, for the appellant (defendant).
Judith Rossi, deputy assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were Mary Galvin, assistant state's attorney, and James G. Clark, deputy assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
The defendant takes this appeal from the judgment rendered after his conviction by a jury of the crimes of sexual assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes 53a-70(a), and risk of injury to a minor child in violation of General Statutes 53-21. He raises only one claim of error, that the trial court abused its discretion in admitting testimony by his wife that, subsequent to the defendant's arrest, she found magazines in the defendant's private room in the basement of their home which contained sexual pictures involving children.
In order to address the issue raised by the defendant, we do not find it necessary to present a detailed description of the facts of this case except to state that the defendant is the natural father of the victim, his daughter, who was nine years old at the time of the assaults. There was no evidence that the defendant showed the magazines to the victim. The defendant's claim is that his wife's testimony was irrelevant and was prejudicial enough to require reversal. We disagree.
The testimony allowed by the court was merely the witness' oral representation that she found several different magazines in the defendant's room, some of which depicted naked girls about the same age as the victim. The magazines themselves were not produced nor were they offered as evidence. The witness' testimony was given in only a few lines. We conclude that the court's ruling admitting the testimony as relevant to the issues in the case was not erroneous.
The witness also testified that she found "one homosexual magazine, and . . . Playboys."
Rulings on relevancy are particularly within the province of the trial court and upon review every reasonable presumption should be given in favor of the trial court's ruling. State v. Howard, 187 Conn. 681, 685, 447 A.2d 1167 (1982); State v. Ryan, 182 Conn. 335, 337, 438 A.2d 107 (1980). The trial court is vested with broad discretion in ruling on questions of relevancy. State v. Runkles, 174 Conn. 405, 413, 389 A.2d 730, cert. denied, 439 U.S. 859, 99 S.Ct. 177, 58 L.Ed.2d 168 (1978); State v. Smith, 174 Conn. 118, 122, 384 A.2d 347 (1977). "`"No precise and universal test of relevancy is furnished by the law, and the question must be determined in each case according to the teaching of reason and judicial experience."'" State v. Periere, 186 Conn. 599, 607, 442 A.2d 1345 (1982); Eason v. Williams, 169 Conn. 589, 591, 363 A.2d 1090 (1975). In State v. Aspinall, 6 Conn. App. 546, 554, 506 A.2d 1063 (1986), we stated that "[t]he trial judge must consider many factors in ruling on relevancy. The court must determine whether the proffered evidence is corroborative or coincidental, whether it is probative or tends to obfuscate, and whether it clarifies or obscures. In arriving at its conclusion, the trial court is in the best position to view the evidence in the context of the entire case, and we will not intervene unless there is a clear abuse of the court's discretion."
On appeal, we are limited in our review to a determination of whether, under the circumstances of the case, the trial court, in exercising its broad discretion, could legally act as it did. See Birgel v. Heintz, 163 Conn. 23, 26, 301 A.2d 249 (1972); Pischitto v. Waldron, 147 Conn. 171, 175, 158 A.2d 168 (1960). As the state contends, the evidence was probative of the fact that the defendant regarded young girls as objects of sexual interest, and was thus relevant to the charges against him. See State v. Manluccia, 2 Conn. App. 333, 335-36, 478 A.2d 1035 (1984). Under the circumstances present here, we cannot say that the trial court, in admitting the testimony by the defendant's wife, abused its discretion in deciding that the evidence was relevant or in weighing its probative value against its prejudicial effect.