175 A.2d 385 | Conn. Super. Ct. | 1961
The information charged the defendant with a violation of § 53-295 of the General Statutes, entitled "Pool selling." The trial court entered a judgment of guilty, and an appeal was taken by the defendant. Nine errors are assigned; the first two are concerned with the refusal of the court to correct its finding as requested by the defendant; the next four are concerned with rulings upon the admission of evidence; the seventh assignment of error concerns the refusal of the court to grant the defendant's motion to dismiss the information; the eighth assignment claims the court erred in a conclusion reached in its finding; and the last assignment of error concerns the conclusion of the court that the defendant was guilty of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt. *509
Since the rights of the defendant are completely protected by the full examination of all the evidence which this court must make in order to determine whether the defendant could be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, we do not consider the first two errors assigned. State v. MacCullough,
In his third assignment, the defendant alleges that the court erred in admitting the opinion of the state's witness, Lieutenant Roach, as to what certain writings represented, without first qualifying him as an expert. The defendant did not set forth the question, the objection, the answer if any, and the exception in an exhibit annexed to his assignment of errors, as required by Circuit Court Rule 7.29.1(4), but merely referred to three pages of the transcript. After a careful examination thereof, we conclude that this assignment of error has no merit because nowhere in these three pages is there contained any question, to which the defendant objected, which resulted in the expression of an opinion by the witness Roach.
The fourth and fifth assignments of error both concern the admission in evidence of the state's exhibits A, B and C, three slips of paper found on the defendant. In the fourth assignment, error is claimed on the ground that the three slips of paper were illegally obtained from the person of the defendant because the search warrant which Roach had in his possession at the time he searched the defendant was defective. The record discloses that there were omissions in the search warrant so as to make it appear that it was directed to a state policeman. The defect was not such as would invalidate the warrant. The return on the search warrant was signed by Roach. The evidence established that he was a member of the police department *510
of the city of Hartford and that he used the warrant within the area coming within his jurisdiction as a police officer. The legality of the search warrant is not in issue. The only question is as to its sufficiency. The criteria set forth in article
In the fifth assignment, error is claimed on the ground that exhibits A, B and C were admitted before the corpus delicti was established. The state offered evidence which established that the three exhibits were found on the defendant's person. The witness, Roach, was asked his opinion of the writing contained in each exhibit. The defendant objected on the ground that to admit testimony as to what the writing purported to be would be to allow evidence which might, as to the defendant, be self-incriminating and that its effect would be to allow an admission of a confession in evidence without first establishing a corpus delicti. The three exhibits were not written confessions of the guilt of the defendant; there is no evidence that they were in the defendant's handwriting; they were not introduced by the state as voluntary statements by the defendant of the fact that a crime was committed and of the defendant's agency therein. State v. LaLouche,
We do not consider the sixth assignment of error because the defendant did not pursue it either in his brief or in oral argument. Independent MethodistEpiscopal Church v. Davis,
The seventh assignment of error concerns the refusal of the trial court to grant the defendant's motion to dismiss the information. This action is not assignable error. State v. Boucher,
In his eighth assignment, the defendant claims that the court erred in concluding that he was concerned in pool selling on January 27, 1961. The principal facts set forth in the finding are: On January 27, 1961, Lieutenant Roach, a member of the Hartford police department and in charge of its vice division, apprehended the defendant in the cafeteria on the premises known as 1429 Park Street, Hartford, and found, after search by warrant, in the pocket of an apron then worn by the defendant, three pieces of paper containing horse bets in the total amount of $7, an Armstrong racing sheet dated January 26, 1961, and four pencils, and, in the right-hand pocket of trousers then worn by the defendant, $7 in United States currency. At the trial of his case, the defendant did not take the witness stand and did not dispute the state's evidence by any of his testimony. On the basis of the subordinate facts summarized above, the trial court found, as a preliminary conclusion, that the defendant was concerned in pool selling. A preliminary conclusion is valid if it is supported by the subordinate facts as found and represents a correct application of legal principles. Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. v. Scortina,
We look now to the ninth assignment of error, wherein the defendant claims error by the court in concluding upon all the evidence that he was guilty of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt. The crime charged was pool selling in violation of § 53-295 of the General Statutes. The information used was the short-form information authorized by Practice Book § 344. The information did not set forth the means by which the offense was committed. This is proper as provided by Practice Book § 349. A careful perusal of § 53-295 of the General Statutes reveals that there are several "means" by which it can be violated; among them are the following: (1) By making, recording or registering any such wager, or by buying, selling or being concerned with buying or selling any such pools; (2) by being the custodian of any pools, money, property or thing of value in any manner wagered or bet upon the result of a horse race, or of any apparatus of any kind used for the purpose of assisting in buying or selling any such pools or making any such wagers or bets. At the time the defendant was presented in court to enter his plea, he knew the crime with which he was charged. He knew also, or *513
was charged with knowing, the various elements of the statute in question and the different means by which the statute could be violated. He did not seek a bill of particulars, so that he cannot now claim that he was not apprised of the specific violation within the statute on which he was to stand trial. State v. DiLorenzo,
The court had uncontradicted facts which established that the defendant was apprehended at his place of employment by the police, who found in the pocket of an apron which he was then and there wearing three pieces of paper containing horse bets in the total amount of $7 and four pencils, and, in one of his trouser pockets, $7 in currency. With these facts and the inference, unfavorable to the defendant, which the court could justifiably draw as a result of his failure to testify on his own behalf and, consequently, explain or attempt to explain the pieces of paper, the $7 and their presence on his person, the court could properly conclude that the papers and money were evidence of pools, money and property wagered or bet upon the result of a horse race, and that the defendant was the custodian of them at the time he was apprehended. State v.Johnson,
There is no error.
In this opinion CASALE and HOLDEN, Js., concurred.
