State v. Richards

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                 STATE OF CONNECTICUT v.
                   JERMAIN V. RICHARDS
                        (SC 20490)
    Robinson, C. J., and McDonald, D’Auria, Ecker and Alexander, Js.

                                  Syllabus

Convicted of the crime of murder, the defendant appealed, and the Appellate
   Court upheld the defendant’s conviction. On the granting of certification,
   the defendant appealed to this court, claiming that the evidence was
   insufficient to support his conviction insofar as the state failed to prove
   the manner, means, place, cause, and time of the victim’s death, and
   that the inferences that the jury apparently drew from the evidence
   were unreasonable because the state failed to prove that the defendant
   had committed or intended to commit any criminal acts. Held that the
   Appellate Court’s well reasoned opinion, in which that court determined
   that the evidence was sufficient to support the defendant’s conviction,
   fully addressed the evidentiary sufficiency issue, and this court adopted
   that portion of the Appellate Court’s opinion as a proper statement of
   the applicable law concerning that issue; moreover, this court emphasized two facts that were not expressly applied by the Appellate Court
   in its analysis but that were noted in the Appellate Court’s opinion and
   further supported the jury’s conclusion that the defendant intended to
   cause or did cause the victim’s death, namely, that the victim had been
   seen at the defendant’s residence within two hours of the victim’s last
   cell phone communication and was in good health, and the defendant
   missed his first work shift the day after the victim disappeared but
   arrived for his second shift later that day.
           Argued March 29—officially released July 16, 2021*

                            Procedural History

  Substitute information charging the defendant with
the crime of murder, brought to the Superior Court in
the judicial district of Fairfield and tried to the jury
before E. Richards, J.; verdict and judgment of guilty,
from which the defendant appealed; thereafter, the
Appellate Court, Keller, Prescott and Bishop, Js., affirmed
the trial court’s judgment, and the defendant, on the
granting of certification, appealed to this court. Affirmed.
   Norman A. Pattis, for the appellant (defendant).
  Kathryn W. Bare, senior assistant state’s attorney,
with whom, on the brief, were Joseph T. Corradino,
state’s attorney, and Ann F. Lawlor, supervisory assistant state’s attorney, for the appellee (state).
                          Opinion

   PER CURIAM. In this certified appeal, we must consider whether there was sufficient evidence for the jury
to find the defendant, Jermain V. Richards, guilty of
murder in violation of General Statutes § 53a-54a (a),1
despite the absence of evidence of the manner, means,
place, cause, and time of the victim’s death. The Appellate Court upheld the trial court’s judgment of conviction. We now affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.
   The defendant was convicted after a third jury trial,
the first two trials having ended in mistrials after hung
juries. State v. Richards, 

, 394, 

 (2020). The defendant appealed, and the
Appellate Court affirmed his conviction. 

. We
granted certification to appeal, limited to the following
issue: ‘‘Did the Appellate Court correctly conclude that
the evidence adduced at the defendant’s trial was sufficient to support his conviction of murder?’’ State v.
Richards, 

, 

 (2020).
  The opinion of the Appellate Court thoroughly and
accurately reports the facts that the jury might reasonably have found to support the conviction of the defendant. The defendant contends that the jury lacked
sufficient evidence to find him guilty of murder. Specifically, he argues that the state failed to prove the manner,
means, place, cause, and time of death, and that the
inferences the jury apparently drew from the evidence
were unreasonable because the state failed to prove
any criminal acts committed by the defendant or that
he intended to commit such acts.2
   Our examination of the record and briefs, and our
consideration of the parties’ arguments, persuades us
that we should affirm the Appellate Court’s judgment.
Because the Appellate Court’s well reasoned opinion
fully addresses the certified issue, it would serve no
purpose for us to repeat the discussion contained in
that opinion. We therefore adopt part I of the Appellate
Court’s opinion as the proper statement of the issue
and the applicable law concerning that issue. See, e.g.,
State v. Buie, 

, 583, 

 (2014); see
also State v. Richards, supra, 196 Conn. App. 394–407.
   Additionally, we emphasize two facts that the Appellate Court did not expressly apply in the analysis section
of its opinion (part I), although they were noted in the
opinion itself. First, not only was the victim last seen
at the defendant’s residence, but she was seen there
within two hours of her last cell phone communication
and was in good health. See State v. Richards, supra,
196 Conn. App. 393–94. While the evidence analyzed in
part I of the Appellate Court’s opinion fully satisfies
the sufficiency of the evidence standard, this evidence
further supports the jury’s conclusion that the defendant intended to cause the victim’s death and did in
fact cause her death. Second, the defendant missed his
work shift, which was scheduled for 3 to 11 p.m. on
Sunday, April 21, 2013, the day after the victim disappeared, but he arrived for his second shift that same
day, which began at 11 p.m. Id., 393. This evidence
further supports the jury’s conclusion that the defendant caused the victim’s death.
   The judgment of the Appellate Court is affirmed.
   * July 16, 2021, the date that this decision was released as a slip opinion,
is the operative date for all substantive and procedural purposes.
   1
     General Statutes § 53a-54a (a) provides in relevant part: ‘‘A person is
guilty of murder when, with intent to cause the death of another person,
he causes the death of such person . . . .’’
   2
     To the extent the defendant argues that there was no evidence that the
victim is, in fact, deceased, we note that the state’s chief medical examiner
testified that the cause of death was ‘‘homicidal violence of an undetermined
type’’ and that the victim’s limbs were removed, postmortem, by the use of
a sharp instrument. See State v. Richards, supra, 

.