People v. Box

145 A.D.3d 1510, 44 N.Y.S.3d 645
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 23, 2016
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 145 A.D.3d 1510 (People v. Box) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Box, 145 A.D.3d 1510, 44 N.Y.S.3d 645 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

[1511]*1511Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Monroe County (Alex R. Renzi, J.), rendered December 11, 2013. The judgment convicted defendant, upon a jury verdict, of identity theft in the first degree and falsifying business records in the first degree.

It is hereby ordered that the judgment so appealed from is unanimously affirmed.

Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him, following a jury trial, of identity theft in the first degree (Penal Law § 190.80 [1]) and falsifying business records in the first degree (§ 175.10), based on allegations that he applied for a credit card in his grandfather’s name and then either he or his accomplice used that credit card to make over $2,000 in cash withdrawals or gift card purchases at two different Wal-Mart stores over the course of one week. To the extent that defendant contends that the evidence is legally insufficient to establish that the multiple uses of the credit card were part of a single, intentional crime as opposed to separate and distinct lesser crimes, we conclude that defendant failed to preserve that contention for our review by a timely motion to dismiss directed at that specific deficiency in the proof (see People v Gray, 86 NY2d 10, 19 [1995]). Were we to reach the merits of that contention, we would conclude that there is sufficient evidence that the repeated use of the credit card “was governed by a single intent and a general illegal design” (People v Cox, 286 NY 137, 143 [1941], rearg denied 286 NY 706 [1941]).

In his pro se supplemental brief, defendant contends that the evidence is legally insufficient to establish that he assumed his grandfather’s identity. That contention is also not preserved for our review (see Gray, 86 NY2d at 19) and, in any event, we conclude that it lacks merit (see People v Yuson, 133 AD3d 1221, 1222 [2015], lv denied 27 NY3d 1157 [2016]).

Contrary to defendant’s contention, viewing the evidence in light of the elements of the crimes as charged to the jury (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 349 [2007]), we conclude that the verdict is not against the weight of the evidence with respect to defendant’s intent to defraud, an element of both offenses (see generally People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495 [1987]). Although the grandfather did not testify, the evidence at trial established that defendant lacked the grandfather’s [1512]*1512permission to apply for and use the credit card, thereby establishing that defendant acted with an intent to defraud. Defendant filed the application in the predawn hours of January 18, 2013 and, although he testified that he filed the application in the presence of and with the permission of his grandfather, defendant’s sister, with whom the grandfather lived, testified that defendant did not visit his grandfather during the entire month of January 2013. Moreover, the accomplice testified that defendant filed the application online at his own residence without the grandfather’s knowledge or consent. Defendant and the accomplice admitted at trial that they made over $1,000 in cash withdrawals and that they used that money to buy crack cocaine. From documentary exhibits and the accomplice’s testimony, the People established that defendant and the accomplice purchased over $1,000 in gift cards, which they traded for crack cocaine. In a recorded telephone call with his mother, defendant attempted to ensure that the grandfather would not testify at trial, which would be illogical if, in fact, defendant had the grandfather’s permission to apply for and use the credit card.

Defendant failed to preserve for our review his contention that Supreme Court improperly limited defense counsel’s summation (see People v Kimmy, 137 AD3d 1723, 1723-1724 [2016], lv denied 27 NY3d 1134 [2016]; People v Gong, 30 AD3d 336, 336 [2006], lv denied 7 NY3d 812 [2006]), and we decline to exercise our power to review that contention as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice (see CPL 470.15 [6] [a]). Moreover, although defendant contends that the prosecutor improperly shifted the burden of proof during summation, we conclude that reversal is not warranted because the prosecutor’s “single improper comment was not so egregious that defendant was thereby deprived of a fair trial” (People v Willson, 272 AD2d 959, 960 [2000], lv denied 95 NY2d 873 [2000]). We note that the court “sustained defendant’s objection to the improper comment and instructed the jury to disregard it, and the jury is presumed to have followed the court’s instructions” (People v Smalls, 100 AD3d 1428, 1430 [2012], lv denied 21 NY3d 1010 [2013]).

Defendant contends that the indictment was duplicitous and multiplicitous and, further, that the testimony at trial rendered the indictment duplicitous. The Court of Appeals has unequivocally held that “issues of non-facial duplicity, like those of facial duplicity, must be preserved for appellate review,” and defendant failed to do so by either a motion to dismiss the indictment or an objection at trial (People v Allen, 24 NY3d 441, 449-450 [1513]*1513[2014]; see People v Rivera, 133 AD3d 1255, 1256 [2015], lv denied 27 NY3d 1154 [2016]). Defendant likewise failed to preserve for our review his multiplicity contention “inasmuch as [he] failed to challenge the indictment on that ground” (People v Fulton, 133 AD3d 1194, 1194 [2015], lv denied 26 NY3d 1109 [2016], denied reconsideration 27 NY3d 997 [2016]; see People v Morey, 224 AD2d 730, 731 [1996], lv denied 87 NY2d 1022 [1996]). We decline to exercise our power to review those contentions as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice (see CPL 470.15 [6] [a]).

With respect to count two, charging defendant with falsifying business records in the first degree (Penal Law § 175.10), defendant contends that this count impermissibly “double counts” defendant’s single criminal intent in violation of People v Cahill (2 NY3d 14 [2003]). We reject that contention. Section 175.10 provides that a person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree if he or she commits the crime of falsifying business records in the second degree and “his [or her] intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.” Defendant thus contends that his intent to defraud in using the credit card was “not meaningfully independent of his intent to defraud through commission (or concealment) of the identity theft associated with gaining the credit card.”

Defendant’s reliance on Cahill in support of that contention is misplaced. In Cahill, the defendant was charged with murder in the first degree under Penal Law § 125.27 (1) (a) (vii), based on the aggravating factor that the victim was killed during the commission of a burglary. In that case, the crime the defendant intended to commit for purposes of the underlying burglary was the murder of the victim, and the Court thus held that, “[i]f the burglar intends only murder, that intent cannot be used both to define the burglary and at the same time bootstrap the second degree (intentional) murder to a capital crime” (id. at 65). In short, the intent to commit murder could not serve as both the basis for the crime (intentional murder) as well as the basis for the aggravating factor (burglary committed with the intent to commit the crime of murder) for the same murder charge. To do so would “double count” the same criminal intent

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Bluebook (online)
145 A.D.3d 1510, 44 N.Y.S.3d 645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-box-nyappdiv-2016.