People v. Reid

971 N.E.2d 353, 19 N.Y.3d 382
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 5, 2012
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 971 N.E.2d 353 (People v. Reid) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Reid, 971 N.E.2d 353, 19 N.Y.3d 382 (N.Y. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Pigott, J.

This appeal raises the question whether a defendant can open the door to the admission of testimony that would otherwise be [385]*385inadmissible under the Confrontation Clause of the United States Constitution. We hold that he can, and, in this case, he did.

On June 8, 2001, a man was shot dead at the door of an Albany apartment where marijuana was being sold. Neighborhood residents saw two young men running away from the area. Four rifle casings were found at the murder scene—ammunition that is used in an AK-47 assault rifle. Four years later, in 2005, a friend with whom the victim had been watching television on the night of the murder identified Shahkene Joseph as a suspect, telling the police that Joseph had bought marijuana from the apartment shortly before the shooting. After further investigation, Joseph and defendant Lamarr Reid were arrested, and charged with murder in the second degree.

Joseph confessed to his involvement in the killing. He admitted that he and Reid had intended to rob residents of the apartment, that he saw the victim standing in the doorway, and that he and Reid fired their weapons through the door. In response to an omnibus motion by Reid, County Court severed Reid’s and Joseph’s trials, citing Bruton v United States (391 US 123 [1968]).

During Reid’s trial, the jury heard evidence concerning the events on the night of the killing—that Joseph visited the apartment before the killing, asking to buy marijuana; that Joseph and Reid gave a rifle or shotgun to a person who had once been in the same street gang as Reid; and that Reid told this person that he had “caught a jux” and “[c]aught a vie,” meaning that he had robbed someone. Two neighborhood residents testified that they had seen “two young men running with hooded sweat shirts” a block away from the crime scene.

The jury also heard that the day after the murder Reid told another acquaintance that “[h]e had caught a body” the previous night, i.e., that he had killed someone. Reid told this acquaintance that he had intended to carry out a robbery but met with resistance, that he had shot through the door or through the crack of the door, and that he had been with Shahkene Joseph and Charles McFarland. Reid said he had used a weapon he called the “Chopper,” which the jury learned was the name given to a particular AK-47 rifle used by Reid’s gang.

During cross-examination of this acquaintance, defense counsel had the witness confirm that McFarland himself had [386]*386been present at this conversation. Defense counsel elicited that the witness had told the police about McFarland, and then asked him, “But you are aware that Charles McFarland has never been arrested for this, right? . . . Only Lamarr Reid and Shahkene Joseph, right?”—to which the witness assented.

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Bluebook (online)
971 N.E.2d 353, 19 N.Y.3d 382, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-reid-ny-2012.