People v. Mitchell

94 A.D.3d 1252, 942 N.Y.S.2d 657
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided April 12, 2012·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

McCarthy, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Albany County (Breslin, J.), rendered August 14, 2003, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of assault in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child.

When defendant picked up his twin nine-month-old daughters from their mother for a visit, they were healthy. After he returned them two days later, the mother noticed that one daughter (hereinafter the victim) was acting unusual and brought her to obtain medical attention. X rays revealed that both of the victim’s tibias and fibulas were broken near the ankles. Defendant admitted to a detective that defendant had hit the victim hard three or four times on the legs because he was angry and frustrated by her crying. Defendant also admitted that, since her birth, he had hit the victim about 20 times for the same reason. Defendant further informed the detective that he had swung the victim around by her legs a few months earlier, first stating that he did so because he did not want her to be afraid of heights and later stating that he was just playing with her. He explained that he would alternately swing her and hold her to his chest, for a total of 10 to 15 minutes, and demonstrated his technique with a doll. This demonstration was memorialized on videotape.

Defendant was charged with assault in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child. Following trial, he was convicted of all counts. County Court sentenced him to a prison term of seven years followed by five years of postrelease supervision for the assault count, a consecutive prison' term of 3V2 to 7 years for the reckless endangerment count and a concurrent jail term of one year for endangering the welfare of a child. Defendant appeals.

The indictment was sufficient to apprise defendant of the charges against him. “An indictment count which incorporates by reference the statutory provision applicable to the charged crime sufficiently alleges all of the elements of that crime, rendering the count valid” (People v Downs, 26 AD3d 525, 526 [1253]*1253[2006], lv denied 6 NY3d 847 [2006]; accord People v Binns, 82 AD3d 1449, 1450 [2011]). Each count here listed the Penal Law section and statutory text of the alleged offense, as well as a factual explanation of how defendant committed the listed offense. The second and third counts were not defective merely because they did not repeat the mens rea in the factual allegations, as the required mental state was included elsewhere in the count.

County Court did not err in amending the first count by deleting the word “attempt.” The inclusion of that word was a typographical error, the grand jury had been asked to consider and vote on assault in the second degree, the evidence before the grand jury supported that charge, the Penal Law section listed in the indictment was for that offense and not an attempted assault, and the evidence at trial established a completed assault. The amendment did not change the People’s theory of the crime and defendant was not prejudiced by the amendment (see CPL 200.70 [1]; People v Spann, 56 NY2d 469, 473 [1982]).

County Court properly denied defendant’s pretrial motions to dismiss the indictment and suppress his statements. The record fails to support any of defendant’s arguments that the integrity of the grand jury was impaired. At the suppression hearing, defendant conceded that he was not in custody when he made the statements to the police. The detective’s testimony, which the court found credible, established that defendant voluntarily drove himself to the police station, agreed to speak with the detective, waived his Miranda rights, was never threatened or confined, made oral statements, corrected and signed a written statement, agreed to demonstrate on videotape how he swung the victim, was not arrested at that time and left the station after giving his statements. Defendant argues that he was coerced, and that the written statement and videotape are fake, but he did not testify at the hearing or support these arguments with other evidence. The hearing evidence supports the court’s determination that defendant’s statements were voluntary (see People v Davis, 18 AD3d 1016, 1017 [2005], lv denied 5 NY3d 805 [2005]). Thus, the court properly denied defendant’s pretrial motions.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence.

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People v. Mitchell, 94 A.D.3d 1252, 942 N.Y.S.2d 657 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2012).

94 A.D.3d 1252 (People v. Mitchell) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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