People v. Fernandez

249 A.D.2d 3, 670 N.Y.S.2d 840, 1998 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3502
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided April 2, 1998·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

—Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Leslie Crocker Snyder, J.), rendered June 21, 1996, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 25 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant was hired by Jose Luis Marte to shoot Ramon Quintero, with whom Marte had an ongoing dispute. Marte was the head of a drug-selling gang known as the Red Top Crew, of which defendant was a member. On June 10, 1993, a man with a ponytail got out of a car in front of 504 West 135th Street and fired multiple shots from an automatic weapon at the persons in front of the building. Quintero was killed and another man was injured. Four eyewitnesses observed the shooting and identified defendant at trial as the shooter. Defendant admitted to two members of another drug gang that he had shot Quintero and “left him like a piece of shit on the floor.”

On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court erred in denying his CPL 330.30 motion to set aside the verdict on the ground that the prosecution failed to disclose exculpatory Brady material (see, Brady v Maryland, 373 US 83). The alleged Brady material was the allegation that one of the police [4]*4witnesses who testified at this defendant’s trial, Police Officer Melino, had been under investigation for selling drugs in 1991 or 1992, a few months before he entered the police academy. In fact, Officer Melino was arrested based on these allegations two days after the jury convicted defendant in this case.

A hearing was held on defendant’s motion, at which Assistant District Attorney (ADA) William Burmeister of the District Attorney’s Office Official Corruption Unit testified. The hearing evidence disclosed that on January 16, 1996, New York State Troopers in the White Plains office notified members of the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Liaison Unit that Officer Melino had been under investigation for selling drugs in 1991 or 1992.

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People v. Fernandez, 249 A.D.2d 3, 670 N.Y.S.2d 840, 1998 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3502 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1998).

249 A.D.2d 3 (People v. Fernandez) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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