Opinion
(4295)
Argued June 12, 1986 —
Decision released July 22, 1986
Information charging the defendant with the crime of assault in the first degree, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Stamford-Norwalk, geographical area number one, and tried to the jury before Dean, J.; verdict and judgment of guilty, from which the defendant appealed to this court. No error.
Terrence J. Murphy, Jr., public defender, for the appellant (defendant).
James G. Clark, deputy assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
The defendant appeals from his conviction, after a jury trial, of assault in the first degree in violation of General Statutes 53a-59 (a)(1). His sole claim on appeal is that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction. We find no error.
The state's evidence, which the jury was free to believe, was that the defendant struck the victim on the head at least three times with a hammer, causing a depressed skull fracture which resulted in traumatic epilepsy and traumatic labyrinthitis, an inner ear disability. The defendant assaulted the victim as she was kneeling in front of her kitchen sink after getting some nails which the defendant, a neighbor, had asked her to give him for repairs which he was making. The appeal of the defendant, who claimed self-defense, does no more than ask us to substitute his version of the incident for the contrary and compelling evidence which the jury believed.