Supreme Court of Connecticut
State v. Baltas
June 3, 2014
Summary
The court held that the trial court improperly excluded evidence bearing on a prosecution witness's motive, bias, and possible participation in the crimes, and improperly refused a specific instruction concerning that witness's motive to testify falsely. Because those errors were not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt as to the kidnapping and burglary convictions, those convictions were reversed and remanded for a new trial, while the murder and assault convictions were affirmed. The court rejected the requested third-party-culpability and general theory-of-defense instructions and declined to reverse for alleged prosecutorial misconduct because any assumed impropriety was not significantly prejudicial.