State v. Steve (1987)

In State v. Steve, 11 Conn. App. 699, 529 A.2d 229 (1987), aff'd, 208 Conn. 38, 544 A.2d 1179 (1988), the defendant was charged as a principal with the crimes of robbery in the first degree and assault in the first degree. Before trial, he filed a motion for a bill of particulars stating the specific nature of the offense or offenses charged, the time, place and manner in which the offenses were committed, the specific acts performed by the defendant which constituted all necessary elements of the crimes charged, and the names and addresses of all persons the state alleged were involved. Id., 701. The response of the state indicated that the defendant was the only person who had participated in committing the crimes charged. At the trial, there was evidence that the defendant was an accomplice of another man who actually had shot the victim in the course of a robbery. This court concluded that the defendant had been unfairly prejudiced in defending himself "in light of the state's particularization of the offenses, both in its bill of particulars and in its representation up until the close of the evidence"; id., 706-707; and that the defendant "was justified in believing that the state was not proceeding upon the theory of accessory liability and in relying upon the prior expressed particularization of the two charges." Id., 707.