People v. Fancher

116 A.D.3d 1084, 984 N.Y.S.2d 174

This text of 116 A.D.3d 1084 (People v. Fancher) 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. Fancher, 116 A.D.3d 1084, 984 N.Y.S.2d 174 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

Garry, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Lambert, J.), rendered June 9, 2011 in Delaware County, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of burglary in the second degree (two counts), burglary in the third degree (three counts), arson in the third degree (four counts), arson in the fourth degree, arson in the fifth degree, attempted arson in the fifth degree, criminal mischief in the third degree (three counts), reckless endangerment in the first degree, criminal trespass in the second degree, trespass and petit larceny.

Defendant and codefendant Donald J. Aitken were charged in a joint 21-count indictment with crimes stemming from their alleged involvement in multiple acts of vandalism, theft, burglary and arson in Delaware County in 2009, culminating in the destruction of a church by fire. Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of burglary in the second degree (two counts), burglary in the third degree (three counts), arson in the third degree (four counts), arson in the fourth degree, arson in the fifth degree, attempted arson in the fifth degree, criminal [1085]*1085mischief in the third degree (three counts), reckless endangerment in the first degree, criminal trespass in the second degree, trespass and petit larceny.1 Supreme Court sentenced defendant to an aggregate prison term of 23 to 69 years, which was later reduced pursuant to Penal Law § 70.30 to an aggregate term of 12 to 20 years. The court further ordered defendant to pay restitution in the aggregate amount of $814,771.48. Defendant appeals.

Defendant first argues that Supreme Court erred in denying his trial motion to dismiss the indictment count that charged him with arson in the second degree, contending that the evidence was legally insufficient to establish the requisite intent (see Penal Law § 150.15). However, following the denial of defendant’s motion, the jury acquitted defendant upon this charge, which was based on damage to a foster home caused by the fire in the nearby church. Defendant was instead convicted of arson in the fourth degree as a lesser included offense, a charge that was given at defendant’s request and did not require a showing of the element of intent that he had challenged (see CPL 300.50 [2]; Penal Law § 150.05 [1]). Defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction for arson in the fourth degree; instead, in effect, he asks this Court to reverse this conviction on the ground that the evidence supporting the charge upon which he was acquitted was legally insufficient. Even if this argument had any merit, defendant waived it by requesting the lesser charge; he “ought not be allowed to take the benefit of the favorable charge and complain about it on appeal” (People v Shaffer, 66 NY2d 663, 665 [1985] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]; compare People v McDuffie, 46 AD3d 1385, 1386 [2007], lv denied 10 NY3d 867 [2008]).

Defendant next challenges the legal sufficiency of the evidence establishing that he acted as Aitken’s accomplice, and further contends, on this basis, that the verdict is contrary to the weight of the evidence.2 Although defendant’s legal sufficiency claims on this ground are unpreserved, we necessarily evaluate whether the evidence supports each element of the crimes in the course of reviewing the contention that the verdict is contrary to the weight of the evidence (see People v Townsend, [1086]*108694 AD3d 1330, 1330 n 1 [2012], lv denied 19 NY3d 1105 [2012]). A defendant may be held criminally liable for the conduct of another person “when, acting with the mental culpability required for the commission thereof, [the defendant] solicits, requests, commands, importunes, or intentionally aids such person to engage in such conduct” (Penal Law § 20.00). The factfinder may infer mental culpability from the surrounding circumstances and the defendant’s actions (see People v Bush, 75 AD3d 917, 918 [2010], lv denied 15 NY3d 919 [2010]; People v Valderrama, 285 AD2d 902, 903 [2001], lv denied 97 NY2d 659 [2001]). Defendant contends that the evidence reveals that Aitken, a volunteer firefighter who testified that he got “an adrenaline rush” from starting fires, was the ringleader who planned and committed the various crimes, while defendant was a passive follower who thought of Aitken as a big brother and — although he was present at the fire scenes — neither took any actions to help Aitken set them nor shared in a “community of purpose” (People v Cabey, 85 NY2d 417, 421 [1995] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]; see Penal Law § 20.00).

Defendant claimed primary responsibility for several of the arsons in an early statement to police, but then recanted these admissions and testified at trial that he made them falsely in an attempt to protect Aitken. He further testified that Aitken planned and carried out the various arsons, and that defendant did not know beforehand about Aitken’s plans and did not help him set the fires. However, he also acknowledged that, even after Aitken set fire to the first structure, defendant continued to accompany him into additional structures that Aitken broke into and burned, without refusing to join him or reporting the crimes to the police. Defendant testified that, on the night that the church was burned, he argued with Aitken to dissuade him from an alleged plan to burn down the house of an ex-girlfriend. When Aitken then announced that he would burn the church instead, defendant expressed reservations on religious grounds but nevertheless accompanied Aitken as he broke into the church and set fire to it, without further objection. Notably, defendant’s testimony that he did not believe he could have stopped Aitken from setting fires if he had tried to do so was inconsistent with his testimony that he did, in fact, successfully object to Aitken’s plan with regard to the ex-girlfriend’s home. Finally, defendant testified that he threw away gas cans that were used in burning the church because he did not want to get caught with them; he later showed police where these cans were hidden.

Aitken contradicted defendant’s testimony as to his principal [1087]*1087role in the arsons, testifying that it was defendant who proposed, planned and committed each of the crimes — which occurred in April, June, September and October 2009 — while Aitken was the passive follower. The jury plainly did not credit all of this self-serving testimony, as it acquitted defendant of everything but trespass charges in relation to the April and June arsons despite his acknowledged presence at both scenes and Aitken’s claims that defendant committed them.3 Nevertheless, a jury is entitled to accept the testimony of a witness in part while rejecting the rest (see People v Alteri, 49 AD3d 918, 920 [2008]). Here, the jury could have credited Aitken’s testimony, at least in part, regarding defendant’s participation in the subsequent crimes — consisting of serial acts of vandalism and arson at three gravel banks and two residences on a single night in September, followed in October by the arson of the church and a barn — and refused to credit defendant’s claims of continued ignorance and uninvolvement.

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Bluebook (online)
116 A.D.3d 1084, 984 N.Y.S.2d 174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-fancher-nyappdiv-2014.