State v. Beebe, 2011 Conn. App. LEXIS 477

Beebe was convicted by jury of two counts of attempt to commit robbery in the first degree and one count of threatening in the second degree, with a firearm enhancement under § 53-202k.
Attempted robbery charges arose from a September 10, 2007 incident at the China City Restaurant in Somers, where Beebe allegedly displayed a gun and demanded money.
Morse testified Beebe pulled up his shirt, exposing a black gun; Yang, working at the restaurant, saw Beebe in dark clothes and sunglasses demanding money.
Ramsey, a witness in the Mill Pond parking area, reported Beebe fled with a gun; Dollak later described Beebe as frightened after the incident.
The court merged the two attempted-robbery counts (a3 and a4) for sentencing; Beebe received a fifteen-year term for the more serious count, plus five years for a firearm enhancement, with other terms running consecutively, totaling twenty-one years with suspended execution after six years.
Beebe did not raise a posttrial objection to the jury instructions on irrelevance of punishment; the defense later argued the issue was waived under waiver jurisprudence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether irrelevance of punishment instruction was waived	Beebe implicitly waived by reviewing and not objecting to the draft charge.	The instruction was improper and laboring on due-process guarantees, unpreserved but reversible.	Implicit waiver; no reversible error.
Whether evidence suffices for the merged § 53a-134(a)(3) claim after merger	Evidence supports the merged count under § 53a-134(a)(4); the merger forecloses separate sufficiency challenge for the lesser count.	Sufficiency of the § 53a-134(a)(3) claim should be separately reviewable even after merger.	No need to review § 53a-134(a)(3) post-merger; sufficiency preserved for § 53a-134(a)(4).

State v. Golding, 213 Conn. 233 (1989) (constitutional error review for unpreserved claims)
State v. Kitchens, 299 Conn. 447 (2011) (implicit waiver when defense reviewed and acquiesced)
State v. Mungroo, 299 Conn. 667 (2011) (meaningful review can waive instructional challenge)
State v. Akande, 299 Conn. 551 (2011) (multiple opportunities to review instructions; implicit waiver)
State v. Chicano, 216 Conn. 699 (1990) (remand/conviction approach when multiple punishments issued)
State v. Longo, 106 Conn. App. 701 (2008) (merger of subdivisions of same statute; sufficiency preserved for one)
State v. Hood, 106 Conn. App. 189 (2008) (merger principles for related offenses)
State v. Pulaski, 71 Conn. App. 497 (2002) (precedent on merger and sufficiency considerations)