People v. Gumbs

56 A.D.2d 345, 868 N.Y.S.2d 29
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in People v. Gumbs. Read the opinion of the Court — 58 A.D.3d 641

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Gregory Carro, J., at suppression hearing; Maxwell Wiley, J., at jury trial and sentence), rendered October 18, 2006, convicting defendant of murder in the second degree, attempted murder in the second degree, and assault in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to a term of 25 years to life, consecutive to concurrent terms of 25 years and seven years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

On January 5, 2005, defendant suggested to Chad Knight and [346]*346Jude Myrthil that they go to buy sneakers and other items at a particular store in Manhattan. Myrthil drove defendant’s car to West 27th Street and the three men went up to the second floor of a warehouse-type building containing several stores. Defendant purchased sneakers and boots from Ali Nasserdine and began to leave with Knight and Myrthil. However, he turned around and walked back to the store as Knight and Myrthil waited by the stairwell.

Ximena Rodriguez, an employee of Nasserdine, testified that a man fitting defendant’s description tried to return a pair of sneakers but Nasserdine refused, offering instead a store credit. Defendant became enraged, drew a gun and shot Nasserdine. Although Rodriguez did not see anyone with defendant when he returned to the store, Samer El-Nader, who worked at another store some 20 feet away, testified that Knight and Myrthil were about four feet away from defendant at the time of the shooting. El-Nader also testified that he thought Knight and Myrthil were with defendant but that they did not “do or say anything at all.” Rodriguez testified that the shooter stepped back in the direction of Knight and Myrthil before drawing the gun and then stepped back toward Nasserdine and shot him.

Knight testified he had not been paying much attention until defendant drew the gun. He claimed he was talking on his cell phone but did not recall with whom he had been speaking. In stark contrast to El-Nader’s testimony, however, Knight swore that he and Myrthil were approximately 14 feet away from defendant when defendant drew the gun. Nasserdine died from five gunshot wounds to the head and El-Nader was shot once in the back. Knight testified that when defendant fired the first shot, he and Myrthil ran down the stairs, out of the building and toward defendant’s car. He stated that although he and Myrthil did not want to accompany defendant, they did speak with defendant in his car before they took the subway back to the Bronx without him. Knight later gave a statement to the police but omitted any mention of meeting defendant and Myrthil at defendant’s car after the shooting.

A security guard in the lobby of the building testified that after hearing shots, he saw two black males run from the stairway toward the street. He heard two more shots and saw another black male exit the stairway and place a revolver in his waistband. He also testified that he thought the man with the gun caught up with the first two men and that all three walked toward Fifth Avenue.

One of the issues on this appeal concerns the denial of defendant’s request to instruct the jury to deliberate whether [347]*347Knight was an accomplice-in-fact whose testimony would thus require corroboration under CPL 60.22. We find that the court erred in declining to submit that issue to the jury. Such an instruction is properly denied only if there is no reasonable view of the evidence that the witness “participated in an offense based upon some of the same facts or conduct which make up the offense on trial” (People v Berger, 52 NY2d 214, 219 [1981]). “[I]f different inferences may reasonably be drawn from the proof regarding complicity, . . . the question should be left to the jury” (People v Basch, 36 NY2d 154, 157 [1975]).

Whether the foregoing testimony was sufficient to require an accomplice-in-fact instruction is an issue we need not resolve, for there was additional highly relevant evidence. The People elicited the testimony of an informant who testified that he had gotten to know defendant well while they were in prison. In essence, the informant testified that defendant had admitted his involvement in the crime as the shooter and provided various details regarding the aftermath of the crime, details the informant himself could not have known. More importantly for our purposes, however, the informant testified that defendant “told me that he did a robbery; that his mens put him down with it” and that he, defendant, had shot two individuals.

The statement by defendant that his “mens” had “put him down with” a robbery reasonably can mean that Knight and Myrthil had alerted defendant to a robbery opportunity or that they had accused him of robbery. It is enough, however, that a reasonable understanding of that statement is that Knight and Myrthil alerted defendant to this robbery opportunity and, viewed in conjunction with the other evidence, accompanied defendant and acted as his accomplices. Indeed, the People conceded as much at oral argument. Asked if there was a reasonable view of the statement that defendant was saying his “mens” had alerted him to this robbery scenario, the assistant district attorney responded, that, “Yes, you could look at it that way.” This answer reflects appropriate candor and not any imprudent concession.

However, we also find that under the applicable standard for nonconstitutional error, the refusal to give an accomplice-in-fact instruction was harmless because “the proof of guilt was overwhelming and there was no significant probability that the jury would have acquitted had the error not occurred” (People v Grant, 7 NY3d 421, 424 [2006]).

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People v. Gumbs, 56 A.D.2d 345, 868 N.Y.S.2d 29 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2008).

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