People v. Maynard

80 Misc. 2d 279, 363 N.Y.S.2d 384, 1974 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1887
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 1974
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 80 Misc. 2d 279 (People v. Maynard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Maynard, 80 Misc. 2d 279, 363 N.Y.S.2d 384, 1974 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1887 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1974).

Opinion

Irving Lang, J.

The defendant, William Maynard, was charged with the crime of murder in the first degree. The first trial of the case resulted in the jury being unable to agree. The second trial was aborted in its early stages upon, a declaration of a mistrial. The third trial resulted in his conviction of the crime of manslaughter in the first degree. The conviction was affirmed by the Appellate Division in a .3 to 2 decision with a strong dissenting opinion (40 AD 2d 779). The case is presently pending before the Court of Appeals.

. The defendant has previously made a series of postconviction, motions before me, which were all denied. The instant motions seek to set aside the judgment of conviction on the grounds of newly discovered evidence (CPL 440.10, subd. 1, par. [g]) and-that the conviction was had in violation of defendant’s constitutional rights urider Brady v. Maryland (373 U. S. 83; CPL 440.10, subd. 1, par. [h]).

The motions revolve around a witness for the prosecution, Michael Febles. Febles was one of three eyewitnesses to the crime. He testified that he saw the defendant and a white companion involved in an argument on West 3rd Street off 6th Avenue with a sailor, Robert Crist, in which the deceased intervened. Shortly thereafter, while in a taxicab on 6th Avenue and West 4th Street, he heard a “blast” and saw the defendant and his companion run away. He gave chase and observed a tan, bag thrown under a car. The bag was later recovered and was- evidence on trial in-connection with the testimony of One [280]*280Howard Fox, a cab driver, who testified he had driven the defendant and a white companion, who carried a tan bag, to the general area of the crime some hours before. Febles identified the defendant as ‘ ‘ sort of tall ”, “ not very heavily built ’ ’, dark Skinned with “ a slender face ” and “ high cheekbones ”, wearing an “Afro” haircut and about “ 19-20 years old”. Febles later identified the defendant by means of photographs and, a seemingly accidental face-to-face encounter in the courthouse.

The other two eyewitnesses were Robert Crist and Dennis Morris. Crist, who was with the deceased at the time of the shooting, identified the defendant as about 18-22 years old and testified he also viewed photographs of him. There was substantial evidence of the fact Crist was in a state of intoxication at the time of the murder. Morris witnessed the initial argumen and also the shooting. He described the defendant as about five feet, eight inches-six feet tall, medium complexion, well built, with an Afro type haircut, 18-22 years old, and resembling Martin Luther King.

The instant motions initially arose from recent information imparted to this court by defendant’s counsel that sometime about 1954 Febles was hospitalized at Rockland State Hospital for psychiatric disorders. A hearing was ordered to determine if the prosecution was aware of these facts. As a result of this court’s order to provide the defendant with Febles’ criminal record (yellow sheet), it was further discovered that on January 10, 1966, some 15 months prior to the homicide, Febles was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge (former Penal Law, § 722, subd. 3), to wit: that on or about January 9, 1966 and subsequent thereto, at 16 West 10th Street, New York City, Febles did “ring the deponent’s doorbell, having no business thereat, did knock upon and look through the deponent’s window, at which time the defendant stated to deponent ‘ I want to come in, to fuck you, I want to suck you, put my mouth in your vagina. I’ll take your clothes all off and fuck you.’ The defendant then fled.”

This arrest and incident took place in the same police precinct as the homicide. The court records of that arrest indicated that upon Febles’ conviction by way of a plea of guilty, the District Attorney related to the court that the complainant had informed him that she was also subjected to telephone harassments “ not unlike the obscenities mentioned in the affidavit,” which she believed were made by Febles, and that the arresting officer, Holmes, was told by Febles that “ for a long [281]*281period of time he has been a peeper and that this area is his area for peeping. ’ ’ The court then committed Febles to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric observation. Upon the sentence proceeding, the record reveals that Febles ’ attorney indicated that Febles would apply for further psychiatric treatment and supervision. Upon such considerations, the court suspended the six-month sentence imposed.

Given these new facts, the scope of the hearing was broadened to include whether the prosecution had knowledge of this incident and the accompanying commitment. The District Attorney was also directed to obtain Febles’ complete records from Bellevue Hospital.

At the hearing, testimony was taken from Febles, his mother, the three chief investigating police officers in the defendant’s case (Lieutenant Stone, Officer Hanast and Officer O’Brien), the arresting officer in the 1966 disorderly conduct conviction (Sergeant Holmes), the complainant in that case, the two trial District Attorneys (Gino Gallina and Stephen Sawyer), and the two defense lawyers on the third trial (Daniel Meyers and Lewis Steel).

Febles testified he told no one, police officer or District Attornew, about his psychiatric history nor the facts of the 1966 disorderly conduct arrest.1 The two District Attorneys and the three police officers also testified they were not aware of any psychiatric history. As to the 1966 disorderly conduct case, Sergeant Holmes stated that during the early stages of the homicide investigation he saw Febles in the station house and told ‘ ‘ some ’ ’ officers present, although he could not recall any specific person he told, that he had arrested Febles on the disorderly conduct charge and it was ‘ ‘ logical ’ ’ he also told them about the subsequent mental commitment in his case. He stated that he knew all three officers in the homicide investigation. Lieutenant Stone, who was the commanding officer of the Sixth Precinct at the time, stated that he knew about Febles being a “ peeper ” but did not tell anyone else. Patrolmen O’Brien and Hanast stated they knew about Febles disorderly conduct conviction but not the underlying facts.

Testimony was also taken in regard to Febles ’ yellow sheet. While Patrolman Hanast stated he thought he saw a yellow [282]*282sheet, he did not personally obtain it. Patrolman O’Brien and Sergeant Stone stated they never got a yellow sheet either. The two District Attorneys testified they had no recollection of any yellow sheet for this witness, but Assistant District Attorney Sawyer testified that on the trial he gave the defense a ‘ ‘ piece of paper ’ ’ containing all the information on the yellow sheet which was provided him by the Bureau of Criminal Identification. Defense counsel Meyer testified he examined the ‘ ‘ piece of paper ” and found it lacking in sufficient information to be of value. Steele testified he could not recollect getting the “paper”. Unfortunately that “paper” was not preserved and is not presently available. At the conclusion of the hearing, the District Attorney produced the additional records from Bellevue. These records showed that sometime about August to September, 1970, also at the exact time of the commencement of the third trial, Febles was again psychiatrieally evaluated at Bellevue. These reports further indicate he was receiving in-patient treatment for one or two months in 1968.

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Bluebook (online)
80 Misc. 2d 279, 363 N.Y.S.2d 384, 1974 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1887, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-maynard-nysupct-1974.