People v. Munck

92 A.D.3d 63, 937 N.Y.2d 334
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 29, 2011
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 92 A.D.3d 63 (People v. Munck) 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. Munck, 92 A.D.3d 63, 937 N.Y.2d 334 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Spain, J.

In February 2008, defendant, age 22, lived with his brother, [65]*65Peter Munck, age 12, in the Broome County home of their grandmother, who had custody of them and their sister all of their lives. On February 5, 2008, the grandmother entered the hospital for emergency surgery, leaving defendant to care for Peter during her anticipated five-day hospital stay which, due to serious medical complications, extended into several weeks. The sister was away at college. On Friday, February 15, Peter was found deceased in his bed by his great-aunt, and an autopsy determined that he had died from internal bleeding. Defendant was charged in an indictment with depraved indifference murder and assault in the second degree.

At trial, the People presented the testimony of the law enforcement officer who questioned defendant, and defendant’s friend, Joe Menard, who had been staying with defendant and Peter during the grandmother’s hospitalization. Defendant and Menard were the only people who saw Peter during the relevant period leading up to his death. This testimony established that on the evening of Tuesday, February 12, 2008, defendant was home with Menard and Peter. According to defendant’s statements to police, Peter came home from school that day and said he did not feel well. Defendant told him to go to bed and he did. Around dinnertime, Peter came out of his first floor bedroom and ate some dinner that defendant had prepared, and he watched television with defendant and Menard. Peter resisted defendant’s request that he go back to bed because he had not been feeling well. Peter began punching defendant, prompting defendant to grab him by the arms and physically put him in bed. When Peter came out of his bedroom and began kicking defendant, defendant took him down and Peter landed on the kitchen floor on his back. Defendant, wearing hiking boots, held Peter down for 30 to 60 seconds by pressing his right foot on Peter’s abdomen, during which Peter unsuccessfully tried to get up. When released, Peter went to his bedroom and went to bed.

Menard, the only other witness, testified that he saw defendant and Peter engage in what he perceived as “horseplay” in the kitchen, observing that when defendant was holding Peter down with his foot, both brothers were laughing; he further described the interaction of the brothers during his stay as loving and affectionate. Both defendant’s statement and Menard’s testimony recounted that — as he held his foot on Peter’s abdomen — defendant held on to the refrigerator and a chair keeping most of his weight off the foot on Peter, and Menard further testified that Peter did not look like he was hurt or in any pain. [66]*66Thereafter, defendant and Menard watched television and movies and listened to music in the living room while Peter remained in his bedroom.

At around 8:00 p.m., defendant and Menard heard a loud scream and defendant rushed to Peter’s bedroom to check on him. Menard, who followed defendant, testified that when he arrived at the bedroom, the screaming had stopped, defendant was leaving the bedroom and, before defendant closed the door, Menard saw Peter roll over on his side. Defendant told Menard, who did not enter, that Peter was having a nightmare. Defendant later told the police that Peter looked “passed out” on his bed, and that he believed that Peter was hurt because of the incident in the kitchen, but that he did not call for help because he was scared. At 4:00 a.m. the next morning, Wednesday, February 13, 2008, defendant and Menard were asleep when they again heard Peter scream loudly; defendant immediately went in to check on him and observed him sweating and “rolling in bed from side to side.” Defendant wiped the sweat from Peter’s face with a washcloth and later told Menard that Peter was having another bad dream. Menard described Peter’s screams as loud and “horrifying,” but went back to sleep after defendant went in to check on him. There was no testimony that Peter said anything, asked for help or continued to cry out. That is the last time that defendant — or anyone — saw Peter alive; when defendant awoke hours later and checked on Peter, he knew he was dead but did not tell anyone or seek help.

Defendant continued to periodically “check” on Peter over the course of the next two days, during which time he and Menard came and went, watched television and played games in the living room. On Thursday, February 14, 2008, defendant communicated with an online friend via MySpace, telling her his brother was dead and that he thought he had killed him. Finally, on Friday, February 15, their great-aunt came over with food, discovered Peter in his bed and summoned emergency personnel, who declared Peter deceased.

An autopsy determined that Peter had died from internal bleeding due to an “extremely rare” small tear in an abdominal artery (the inferior mesenteric artery) where it branches off the aorta adjacent to his spine. The pathologist, called as a witness by the People, described it as “a small break in the blood vessel,” which she opined was caused by blunt force trauma to the abdomen, concluding that “[a]ny blunt force” or “significant pressure” to the abdominal area could have caused the tear. [67]*67Significantly, the pathologist explained that the vessel that tore had been already weakened by a prior similar injury of unknown origin that had healed and scarred and that, as a consequence, the force required to cause this fatal injury “would not have to have been very severe,” as the weakened artery would have been “brittle” and would have torn more easily. In addition, Peter was “very skinny” (about 5 feet tall and 80 pounds), and the very small space between his abdomen and spine when lying on the floor would have made him more susceptible to injury.1 The pathologist further testified that the tear caused a slow bleed, which could have lasted — at most — one day but probably about six hours, although she could not say with scientific certainty how long the bleeding lasted before the boy’s death; the resulting accumulation of blood would have been very painful, making getting up or calling for help impossible, and he would have lost consciousness prior to his death. The pathologist saw no evidence of defensive wounds on Peter.

A vascular surgeon, also called by the People, reviewed the autopsy report and concurred that the arterial tear that led to Peter’s death and the preexisting injury were very rare, and that the scarring would have made the artery more susceptible to tearing. He opined that it was very difficult to estimate how much force had been applied, how quickly Peter became incapacitated, or the speed of his blood loss. He concluded that a tear like this would possibly have been surgically treatable if it had been timely diagnosed and the person had not progressed into irreversible shock.

At the close of the People’s proof, County Court, based on the insufficiency of the evidence, dismissed the depraved indifference murder count and charged the jury on the lesser included offenses of manslaughter in the second degree and criminally negligent homicide, as well as the assault in the second degree count. Defendant was acquitted of all charges except criminally negligent homicide, and was sentenced to time served, having spent two years in jail awaiting trial, and a probation term of five years. Defendant now appeals.

Initially, defendant argues that County Court erred in denying his motion to suppress his statements to Detective Sergeant Fred Akshar of the Broome County Sheriffs Depart

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Bluebook (online)
92 A.D.3d 63, 937 N.Y.2d 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-munck-nyappdiv-2011.