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State v. Christian3/9/2004
assistant director of emergency medicine at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, who testified that the victim's chest injury could not have been caused by an impact with a deploying air bag, but "may have" been caused by traumatic contact with "some blunt object, such as the steering wheel or some other part of the vehicle." Sanchez further testified that anxiety, intoxication or discomfort could cause a patient to make an incorrect statement to a treating paramedic.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all three counts. Thereafter, the trial court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict and imposed on the defendant a total effective sentence of ten years imprisonment, suspended after eight years and seven months, five years probation and a $500 fine. This appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.
I.
We first address the defendant's claim that the trial court improperly permitted the defendant's wife, Joan Christian, to testify, over his objection, regarding his confidential communications to her. The following facts and procedural history are relevant to our resolution of this claim. In the early hours of March 18, 2000, Joan Christian was finishing her shift as a waitress at a restaurant in Avon when she received a telephone call informing her of the defendant's accident. She immediately went to Hartford Hospital, where she was greeted by Imperatrice, a chaplain and several physicians, who told her that the victim had died in the accident and that they believed that the defendant had been the driver of the vehicle involved. After consulting with the physicians, Joan Christian went, by herself, to the defendant's hospital room to inform him that the victim had died. When she arrived, the defendant quietly told her that he had been driving the vehicle, and he then made motions with his hands as though he were operating a steering wheel. Joan Christian quickly covered the defendant's hands with her own and "hushed" him, ostensibly to prevent him from making any further incriminating statements. Imperatrice and the physicians entered the room immediately thereafter. The defendant made no further incriminating remarks.
At trial, the state offered Joan Christian as a witness. She testified, upon voir dire, that at the time of trial, she and the defendant were separated and in the process of getting divorced. She further testified, however, that at the time of the accident in March, 2000, although she and the defendant still were living together, the marriage "was very rocky" and that it "went downhill" after the night of the accident. Finally, she testified that the marriage was over and that she did not feel that preserving the confidentiality of the defendant's statement would have any effect on repairing the marriage.
The defendant filed a motion in limine seeking to prevent Joan Christian from testifying about this communication on the ground that it was a privileged confidential marital communication. Specifically, the defendant argued that, although no Connecticut case expressly has recognized the existence of the marital communications privilege, the dictum of this court's opinion in State v. Littlejohn, 199 Conn. 631, 649, 508 A.2d 1376 (1986), indicates that the privilege "has seemingly been accepted" by the courts of this state. The defendant further argued that the marital communications privilege was applicable to the present case because the communication had been "made during marriage, out of the presence of third parties . . . ." In response, the state argued that, regardless of whether the privilege was available, the communication was not confidential, and thus, not privileged, because
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