State v. Maldonado

The defendant was convicted by a jury of felony murder, in violation of General Statutes §§ 53a-54c and 53a-54a (c) and sentenced by the trial court to a term of not less than twenty years nor more than life. Five of the defendant’s six claims on appeal arise out of the disappearance of a state’s witness after he had testified for the state but before the defendant had completed cross-examining him. The defendant claims that (1) the failure of this witness to return for the completion of the cross-examination deprived the defendant of his federal and state constitutional rights to…