People v. Butler

81 A.D.3d 484, 917 N.Y.S.2d 147
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 10, 2011
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 81 A.D.3d 484 (People v. Butler) 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. Butler, 81 A.D.3d 484, 917 N.Y.S.2d 147 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Charles H. Solomon, J., at suppression hearing and speedy trial motion; Ruth Pickholz, J., at jury trial and sentence), rendered June 16, 2009, convicting defendant of two counts each of robbery in the first and second degrees and two counts each of criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of 12 years, affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing the jury’s credibility determinations. Although the robbery victims did not see defendant’s face, there was a chain of circumstantial evidence, including defendant’s possession of jewelry taken in the robbery very shortly after it occurred, that had no reasonable explanation except that defendant was one of the robbers.

[485]*485The court properly denied defendant’s suppression motion. There is no basis for disturbing the court’s credibility determinations. The rapidly unfolding sequence of events justified every aspect of the police conduct, even though officers detained and frisked defendant before they became aware that he was implicated in a robbery. Initially, the police had, at least, reasonable suspicion that all the persons who fled from a crashed vehicle were involved in criminal activity (see People v Pines, 99 NY2d 525 [2002]). The vehicle had spontaneously led the police on a high speed chase that was unlawful and went beyond mere traffic infractions, and the police also had some information that it may have been stolen. Almost immediately after the crash, other officers saw defendant and a codefendant running, and these officers reasonably suspected that the two men were among the suspects described in a radio communication as having fled from the crashed vehicle. The men met a general description of the suspects and were running in the suspects’ direction of travel on a nearly deserted street in extremely close spatial and temporal proximity to the crash. After the officers briefly lost sight of the men, they saw two cabs stopped at a red light on the block onto which the men had turned. The first cab driver gestured toward the second cab, and the second cab driver flashed his high beams, clearly seeking police intervention (see People v Blakely, 46 NY2d 1026 [1979]). In the backseat of the second cab, the officers saw defendant and the codefendant, who appeared to be the men they had seen running, and who were sweating profusely and breathing heavily. Based on all this information, the officers had, at least, reasonable suspicion that these were the men who had fled from the crashed vehicle (see e.g. People v Lineberger, 282 AD2d 369, 370 [2001], affd 98 NY2d 662 [2002]), and they were entitled to frisk them to ensure their own safety (see generally People v Batista, 88 NY2d 650, 653-654 [1996]). We have considered and rejected defendant’s remaining suppression arguments.

There is no merit to defendant’s arguments concerning the court’s refusal to impose a sanction for the loss of documents alleged by defendant to contain Rosario material, the court’s charge on the inference that may be drawn from recent, exclusive and unexplained possession of the fruits of a crime, and the alleged unfairness of the trial.

Finally, while the court properly denied defendant’s speedy trial motion, it erred by not charging the People, in addition to the 125 days that the court assessed, with an additional period of 28 days that ran from June 11, 2007, when the case was on for pretrial hearings. When the court called the case at 10:40 [486]*486A.M., defendant’s attorney, Darren Fields, was not present, but the codefendant’s counsel informed the court that Mr. Fields was “on route.” Upon the People’s request for an adjournment until July 9 or 10 to accommodate the vacation schedule of several police officers, the court adjourned the pretrial hearing to July 9. At 10:45 a.m., Mr. Fields appeared, whereupon the court recalled the case and informed counsel of the adjournment.

The court did not charge the People with the 28-day period between June 11 and July 9 on the ground that, although the People were not ready on June 11, the period was excludable because defendant’s counsel was not present when the case was called (see People v Mannino, 306 AD2d 157, 158 [2003], lv denied 100 NY2d 643 [2003]). Under the circumstances, where the People were not ready, requested an adjournment, and were accommodated by the court, and Mr. Fields appeared within minutes of the calendar call, the 28 days should have been charged to the prosecution. The situation is distinguishable from that found in such cases as People v Lassiter (240 AD2d 293, 294 [1997]) and People v Brown (195 AD2d 310, 311 [1993], lv denied 82 NY2d 891 [1993]), in that here the court knew that counsel was en route but still granted the adjournment to the People before counsel arrived immediately thereafter.

Since the increase of 28 days is still less than the 182 allowed under CPL 30.30, the judgment stands.

This decision does not dispose of any issues raised on the People’s appeal from the sentence (appeal No. 3537). Concur— Acosta, Renwick and Freedman, JJ. Tom, J.P., concurs in result only.

McGuire, J., concurs in a separate memorandum as follows: I agree with the majority’s disposition of this appeal and with its analysis, except with respect to aspects of its discussion of defendant’s speedy trial motion. In denying defendant’s speedy trial motion, Supreme Court ruled that 125 days of delay were chargeable to the People. On appeal, defendant disputes 11 other periods of delay, accounting for an additional 281 days of delay, arguing that they should be charged to the People. The majority implicitly holds that Supreme Court correctly excluded all but 28 of these 281 days, for it identifies Supreme Court’s sole error as not charging these 28 days to the People. With respect to 10 of the 11 disputed periods (accounting for 253 of the 281 days), the majority makes no mention of any of defendant’s arguments, presumably because it regards all of them (correctly, in my view) as so lacking in merit as to warrant no discussion. I would reject defendant’s arguments with respect to all 11 periods of delay. Thus, my ultimate conclusion that the speedy trial motion [487]*487properly was denied is dependent on 11 subconclusions, each of which is as necessary to my ultimate conclusion as any other (although no single subconclusion, viewed in isolation, is essential to the ultimate conclusion). I discuss 1 of the 11 disputed periods only because the majority discusses it and erroneously concludes that this period is chargeable to the People.

With respect to this period, the delay from June 11, 2007 to July 9, 2007, there is no dispute that defendant’s counsel was not present in court when the case was called at 10:40 a.m. on June 11. Nor is there any dispute that the call of the calendar began at 9:30 a.m. Indeed, the court noted that very fact when the case was called and defendant’s counsel was absent. Thus, when the case was called, defendant’s counsel was one hour and 10 minutes late. When the case was called, counsel for one of the two codefendants told the court only that defendant’s attorney had reported he was “on route.” Of course, however, that statement was uninformative with respect to where defendant’s attorney was and when he would be appearing.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
81 A.D.3d 484, 917 N.Y.S.2d 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-butler-nyappdiv-2011.