Opinion ID: 2338879
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: lachance testimony

Text: Elizabeth LaChance, the defendant's stepsister, testified for the state regarding the defendant's activities on the days which followed the murders for which the defendant was on trial. Her relevant testimony may be summarized as follows: On October 20, 1974, the day after the night on which the murders took place, Piskorski, Schrager and a girl named Abby were in Maine, the state in which the witness LaChance resided at the time. Sometime after 7:30 that evening, the witness and her husband accompanied the defendant and his companions to the Holiday Inn in Brunswick, Maine where they had a few drinks. The bill for those drinks, which came to between $50 and $70, was paid by the defendant and Schrager but it was not known how much of that amount was paid by each. On October 22, 1974, a date about which the witness was by no means certain, Mrs. LaChance came back to Connecticut with the defendant and they returned to Maine early the next morning. The defendant searched for and was successful in obtaining employment in Maine, and he and his companions remained in Maine at the witness' home for about two and one half to three weeks. Prior to and during the above testimony, the defendant consistently objected to its admissibility and, following that testimony, moved to have it stricken from the record. The court overruled the objections to this line of inquiry and denied the defendant's subsequent motions to strike. The defendant appears to claim that: the various portions of the testimony of LaChance regarding the defendant's presence in Maine and conduct subsequent to October 19, 1974, were irrelevant and inadmissible either on the grounds that it tended to establish a foundation for a charge on the defendant's flight from the state or that it constituted proof of the actions of the defendant immediately preceding and subsequent to the commission of the crimes in order to present a complete picture of the entire transaction; the testimony regarding the money spent by the defendant while in Maine was totally irrelevant under all the circumstances; and the testimony of the defendant's return to the state on October 22, 1974, should have been stricken when the state failed to establish that the witness' recollection of the precise date had been refreshed. `The flight of the person accused of crime is a circumstance which, when considered together with all the facts of the case, may justify an inference of the accused's guilt. It does not raise a presumption of guilt.' 1 Wharton [Criminal Evidence (13th Ed.) ] § 143, p. 243; accord, 2 Wigmore, Evidence (3d Ed.) § 276; McCormick [Evidence (2d Ed.)] § 271 (c); see annot., 25 A.L.R. 886. State v. Rosa, 170 Conn. 417, 433, 365 A.2d 1135. Flight is a form of circumstantial evidence. Generally speaking, all that is required is that the evidence have relevance, and the fact that ambiguities or explanations may exist which tend to rebut an inference of guilt does not render evidence of flight inadmissible but simply constitutes a factor for the jury's consideration. People v. Yazum, 13 N.Y.2d 302, 304-305, 196 N.E.2d 263; 1 Wharton, op. cit. § 214; 29 Am. Jur. 2d, Evidence § 280. Since it is unexplained flight which tends to prove a consciousness of guilt; State v. Rosa, supra, 432-33; State v. Beaulieu, 164 Conn. 620, 632, 325 A.2d 263; State v. Miller, 154 Conn. 622, 628, 228 A.2d 136; the probative value of evidence of flight is, in large part, dependent upon facts pointing to the motive which prompted it. See 29 Am. Jur. 2d, supra, § 280. As bearing upon the motive of the defendant, the state may present direct or inferential evidence of the defendant's knowledge he was wanted by the police; see State v. Mayell, 163 Conn. 419, 425, 311 A.2d 60; as well as, if relevant, evidence of the defendant's conduct and demeanor during his flight, the direction of his flight and the places to which he went. Rollings v. State, 160 Ala. 82, 49 So. 329; annot., 25 A.L.R. 886, 901; 29 Am. Jur. 2d, supra; 40 C.J.S., Homicide § 251. In the present case, we cannot say that the testimony involving the defendant's removal to Maine and general movements following the murders was irrelevant on the question of flight. Although the trial court's admission of and subsequent refusal to strike this testimony was based upon other grounds, nevertheless, its decision is not subject to reversal. As to the testimony regarding the expenditure of money by the defendant while in Maine, we do not agree with the defendant that, in light of all the other evidence, it should have been excluded as irrelevant. `One fact is relevant to another fact whenever, according to the common course of events, the existence of the one, taken alone or in connection with other facts, renders the existence of the other either certain or more probable. Unless excluded by some rule or principle of law, any fact may be proved which logically tends to aid the trier in the determination of the issue.... No precise and universal test of relevancy is furnished by the law, and the question must be determined in each case according to the teachings of reason and judicial experience.'  (Citations omitted.) State v. Schaffer, 168 Conn. 309, 317, 362 A.2d 893. In view of the evidence from which the jury could have found that the defendant did not have enough money to pay for the shotgun he purchased two days before the murders; that, on the night following the crimes, the defendant and his companions were observed emptying the contents of some wallets; that the defendant was driven to a pond where he disposed of those wallets; and that the empty wallets of the victims were subsequently recovered from that pond by the police; there was no clear abuse of the trial court's broad discretion in allowing into evidence the testimony that the defendant paid at least part of a $50 to $70 bill in Maine on the night following the murders. See State v. Schaffer, supra. The facts that other testimony indicated that the defendant denied having any money even after the murders and that he was owed money by another were factors affecting the weight to be accorded such testimony once the initial determination of relevancy was made by the court. We do agree with the defendant, however, that the testimony of Mrs. LaChance regarding the date on which she returned to Connecticut with the defendant should have been stricken since, under questioning by defense counsel, the witness conceded that she had no present recollection of the date but, rather, was simply reading the date referred to in her written statement which was used by the state to refresh her recollection. [24] Under the evidentiary rules of present recollection refreshed, the memorandum must stimulate the recollection of the witness so that he may testify from a present recollection. Neff v. Neff, 96 Conn. 273, 278, 114 A. 126; Card v. Foot, 56 Conn. 369, 374, 15 A. 371; McCormick, Evidence (2d Ed.) § 9. Although the question whether the witness' recollection has been refreshed is a determination to be made by the trial court and is ordinarily not reviewable, where, as here, it is unmistakable that the witness simply read the memorandum without having any independent recollection of its reference to a detail (here, the date), the conclusion of the trial court cannot be sustained. State v. Perelli, 125 Conn. 321, 327, 5 A.2d 705. In order to constitute reversible error, however, the ruling must have been both erroneous and harmful. Milton v. Wainwright, 407 U.S. 371, 92 S. Ct. 2174, 33 L. Ed. 2d 1; State v. Annunziato, 169 Conn. 517, 524-25, 363 A.2d 1011. In view of the testimony of other witnesses that the defendant was in Connecticut on October 22, 1974, we find no basis to support the defendant's claim that the failure to strike this portion of Mrs. LaChance's testimony was probably harmful. See State v. Vennard, 159 Conn. 385, 393, 270 A.2d 837, cert. denied, 400 U.S. 1011, 91 S. Ct. 576, 27 L. Ed. 2d 625.