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State v. Rosario2/24/2004
The defendant, Luis Rosario, was the driver of a vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian. As a consequence of that accident, the state charged him in a three count information with evasion of responsibility in the operation of a motor vehicle in violation of General Statutes § 14-224 (a), manslaughter in the second degree with a motor vehicle in violation of General Statutes § 53a-56b, and manslaughter in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-56 (a) (1). After a trial by jury, the defendant was convicted of evasion of responsibility in the operation of a motor vehicle and acquitted of manslaughter in the second degree. He was sentenced to ten years in the custody of the commissioner of correction, the execution of which was to be suspended after he had served eight years with five years of probation thereafter.
When the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision as to the second count, manslaughter in the second degree with a motor vehicle, the court declared a mistrial as to that count. On appeal, the defendant claims that the court acted improperly in that it (1) denied his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the charge of evading responsibility, (2) did not suppress the tests of his blood alcohol content from the night of the accident, (3) precluded evidence of the victim's blood alcohol content and (4) prevented the defendant on cross-examination from introducing portions of his statement to the police when those portions were necessary to clarify other portions that were brought out in the state's direct examination. We address the first issue together with the only one of the defendant's remaining evidentiary issues that relates to his conviction on the evasion of responsibility charge. We decline to review the remaining evidentiary issues relating to the charge of manslaughter in the second degree with a motor vehicle on which the jury could not agree, thereby resulting in a mistrial as to that count. On that charge, there has been no final judgment. We affirm the judgment of the trial court as to the conviction of the crime of evasion of responsibility in the operation of a motor vehicle.
The following evidence was presented to the jury. On January 23, 2000, at approximately 8:30 p.m., the deceased, Yvonne Spaziani, was leaving the Park East Cafe in Waterbury to wait for a taxicab she had called to take her and her son home. Rene Cunningham, a patron of the Park East Cafe, also was leaving, and when he noticed Spaziani and her son waiting, he offered them a ride home. Cunningham's car was parked across the street. After letting several cars pass and looking both ways to make certain the road was clear, the three of them began to cross the road with Cunningham on the left, the child in the middle and Spaziani on the right, closest to the path of the defendant's oncoming vehicle.
As they reached the center of the street, Cunningham noticed the defendant's car approaching them at a high rate of speed. Cunningham called out to Spaziani and picked up her child by his jacket collar, pulling him to safety. Spaziani was still in the road when she was struck by the defendant's vehicle, causing her death.
Several people witnessed the accident, including Cunningham and another motorist who had been proceeding in the opposite direction from the defendant's vehicle. The defendant did not stop immediately after striking Spaziani but, instead, drove directly to his home. When he arrived at his home, the defendant was upset at what had just happened. After speaking with his wife, the defendant turned himself in at the Waterbury police station approximately twenty minutes after the first report of the accident. Once at the police station,
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