Title: State v. Pellerin

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

STATE_V_PELLERIN.94-388; 164 Vt 376; 670 A.2d 255

[Opinion Filed 27-Oct-1995]

[Motion for Reargument Denied 16-Nov-1995]


  NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under
  V.R.A.P. 40 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont
  Reports.  Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions,
  Vermont Supreme Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of
  any errors in order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes
  to press.


                                 No. 94-388


 State of Vermont                                  Supreme Court

                                                   On Appeal from
     v.                                            District Court of Vermont,
                                                   Unit No. 1, Windsor Circuit

 Thomas Y. Pellerin                                September Term, 1995



Paul F. Hudson, J.

M. Patricia Zimmerman, Windsor County State's Attorney, White River
Junction, for plaintiff-appellee

William A. Hunter, Cavendish, for defendant-appellant


PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.



       GIBSON, J.  Defendant Thomas Y. Pellerin appeals his conviction for
  sexual assault of a person under the age of sixteen, 13 V.S.A. §
  3252(a)(3).  He claims that there was insufficient evidence to support his
  conviction and that he was not given a fair trial due to judicial bias,
  improper jury selection proceedings, and improper testimony at trial and at
  sentencing.  We affirm.

       On March 23, 1992, defendant entered a conditional nolo plea to the
  crime charged and pursued an appeal to this Court concerning suppression of
  his oral waiver of Miranda rights. Prior to sentencing, the State provided
  defendant with certified copies of his prior Vermont convictions for sexual
  assaults in 1972, 1976 and 1990, and with certified copies of his criminal
  convictions in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  The victim of the assault
  in 1972 testified at the sentencing hearing on July 13, 1992.  Judge Robert
  Grussing sentenced defendant to

 

  prison for twelve to eighteen years.  On appeal of that conviction, we
  reversed and remanded on the ground that defendant's oral Miranda waiver
  was not valid under Vermont's public defender act.  State v. Pellerin, 161
  Vt. 229, 232,