State v. Roberts, 158 Conn.App. 144

Roberts was convicted after a jury trial in the New Haven Judicial District of murder, felony murder, robbery in the first degree, criminal possession of a firearm, and carrying a pistol without a permit; he received a sixty-five year sentence.
On April 17, 2005, Roberts allegedly confronted three men in New Haven, brandished a .22 caliber handgun, grabbed a chain, and fired multiple shots, killing Elijah Stovall.
A black Acura rented by Jared Buice and later driven by Roberts was involved; witness Porter identified the Acura and observed a man fitting Roberts’ description fleeing the scene.
Duarte identified Roberts as the shooter at trial; the jury found Roberts guilty on all charged counts.
Roberts challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, asserted prosecutorial impropriety in closing argument, and argued improper sentencing merger/duplication of charges.
The trial court denied post-trial motions, and Roberts appealed, resulting in a partial reversal on the felony murder conviction.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Sufficiency of the evidence to convict	Duarte’s credibility was questionable; the state bears burden to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt	Evidence fails to prove Roberts committed the crimes; credibility issues undermine guilt	Evidence sufficient; most credibility questions resolved by the jury; conviction upheld except as to felony murder
Prosecutorial impropriety in closing argument	Prosecutor overstated facts and urged guilt beyond the evidence	Misstatements were isolated and did not prejudice due process	No due process violation; closing remarks did not deprive defendant of a fair trial
Sentencing merger of felony murder with murder	Felony murder should have been vacated under double jeopardy/cumulative-conviction rule	No vacatur or remand required; sentencing within permissible framework	Felony murder conviction vacated; remand for resentencing not necessary; judgment affirmed on remaining counts

State v. Moody, 121 Conn. App. 207 (Conn. App. 2010) (standard for sufficiency of evidence and credibility of witnesses; defer to trial court’s findings)
State v. Chase, 154 Conn. App. 337 (Conn. App. 2014) (prosecutorial impropriety in closing arguments; requirement of a fair and reasonable argument)
State v. Miranda, 145 Conn. App. 494 (Conn. App. 2013) (vacatur rule for double jeopardy/cumulative convictions arising from a single act)
State v. Polanco, 308 Conn. 242 (Conn. 2013) (application of vacatur/cumulative-conviction principles to sentencing)
State v. Williams, 81 Conn. App. 1 (Conn. App. 2004) (isolated prosecutorial misstatements in closing argument unlikely to prejudice)