People v. Chico

233 A.D.2d 245, 650 N.Y.S.2d 150, 1996 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12161

Opinions

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Gerald Sheindlin, J.), rendered August 2, 1994, convicting defendant, after a nonjury trial, of two counts of hindering prosecution in the first degree, and sentencing her to concurrent terms of 1 to 3 years, affirmed.

The evidence that defendant witnessed a person commit a class A felony, and that defendant, on at least two occasions, rendered criminal assistance to that person by warning him of impending discovery or apprehension, was legally sufficient to support a finding of defendant’s guilt of hindering prosecution in the first degree (Penal Law §§ 205.65, 205.50 [2]).

The corroboration statute (CPL 60.50) only requires "proof by independent evidence that the confessed crime occurred” (People v Hamilton 121 AD2d 395, 396). The requirement was satisfied here by the detectives’ testimony that defendant rendered criminal assistance to a murder suspect. That defendant’s statements to the police, that she had witnessed the suspect commit the homicide, was the only evidence adduced at trial that a class A felony had been committed by that person did not render the corroboration insufficient since the corroboration requirement does not apply to the underlying felony (see, supra, at 395, citing People v Davis, 46 NY2d 780; People v Agard, 111 AD2d 821, lv denied 66 NY2d 613). Concur—Sullivan, Rubin, Ross and Nardelli, JJ.