People v. Robinson

53 A.D.3d 681, 860 N.Y.S.2d 680
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided July 3, 2008·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinion

Lahtinen, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Lamont, J.), rendered February 8, 2007 in Albany County, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of robbery in the first degree (two counts), attempted robbery in the first degree, robbery in the second degree (three counts), attempted robbery in the second degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree.

On December 10, 2005, two men wearing ski masks robbed a Stewart’s store on Delaware Avenue in the City of Albany. One man carried a handgun and wore latex gloves and the other was armed with a black shotgun. The robbery occurred at about 4:30 a.m., which was half an hour before the store was scheduled to open. The perpetrators came from behind a dumpster in the rear of the store and confronted two male employees (one unloading a delivery truck and the other taking out trash). These two employees were directed into the rear of the store and told to lie down in the storeroom. The perpetrator armed [682]*682with a handgun (who was described as about 5 feet, 11 inches, and 160 pounds) demanded cash from these two victims and kept watch over them. The other perpetrator (who was described as about 5 feet, 6 inches, and a muscular 200 pounds) moved to the front of the store where he encountered a female employee, whom he repeatedly punched in the face and then dragged by her hair to the store safe, which he demanded she open. The perpetrators fled with approximately $1,800.

During the investigation, police uncovered evidence which led them to conclude that defendant was the person with the handgun in the rear of the store and that the other perpetrator was Desmon Lewis. Defendant was charged in a multicount indictment and, following a jury trial, found guilty of robbery in the first degree (two counts), attempted robbery in the first degree, robbery in the second degree (three counts), attempted robbery in the second degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree. He was sentenced to an aggregate prison term of 14 years with five years of postrelease supervision. Defendant appeals.

Defendant initially argues that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. Since a different verdict would not have been unreasonable, we “must, like the trier of fact below, ‘weigh the relative probative force of conflicting testimony and the relative strength of conflicting inferences that may be drawn from the testimony’ ” (People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495 [1987], quoting People ex rel. MacCracken v Miller, 291 NY 55, 62 [1943]; accord People v Romero, 7 NY3d 633, 645 [2006]). The People’s proof included the fact that defendant, who had previously worked at this Stewart’s, bragged to some of his friends— including Lewis and Orlando Rodriguez—that robbing the store would be easy. The female victim, who had worked with defendant at the store, testified that, when the perpetrator in the rear of the store called to the front, the voice “[s]ounded like” defendant’s. Evidence indicated that the perpetrators were familiar with the store’s opening procedures, layout and theft prevention techniques. One of the male victims, who was familiar with guns, described the shotgun used in the robbery as black on black with a heat dissipation rail, which matched the description of a shotgun recently purchased by defendant and discovered in his bedroom when police executed a search warrant. Latex gloves were found in defendant’s car. Joshua Duell, a friend of defendant, testified that defendant admitted to participating in the robbery.

To be sure, defendant brought out weaknesses in some of this evidence and offered proof in support of his theory that Lewis [683]*683and Rodriguez committed the crime. For example, defendant elicited proof of the favorable deal that Duell received on pending charges for testifying, and urged that the female victim’s voice identification of defendant was not free from ambiguity. He pointed out that he openly acknowledged to police that he had boasted about the ease with which the Stewart’s could be robbed, but noted that he did this boasting in the presence of Lewis and Rodriguez, who were in his “brotherhood” and who had free access to his car and the shotgun in his car. He claimed that he was passed-out drunk on a couch on the morning of the robbery, and produced a witness who claimed to have seen him sleeping on the couch shortly before the crime occurred. This witness’s credibility, however, was attacked by the prosecution in part because of his criminal record. Upon weighing the proof in the record and according deference to the jury’s opportunity to view the witnesses (see People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d at 495), we are unpersuaded that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence.

We consider next defendant’s contention that the People altered their theory of the case and that Supreme Court gave a supplemental instruction which permitted the jury to convict him upon a ground outside the People’s original theory. The People attempted to show that defendant was the perpetrator who remained in the rear of the store and their theory throughout was that the perpetrators acted in concert. The jury sent out a note asking whether the phrase “in concert” meant physical presence at the scene and also seeking clarification of the term “actual presence.” Supreme Court, after permitting input from the parties, gave a detailed supplemental instruction which included the correct legal answer that an accomplice does not have to be physically present. We are not persuaded that such answer—when considered in context and in light of the entirety of Supreme Court’s charge (which correctly defined accessorial liability in the first instance) and the supplemental instructions given

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

People v. Robinson, 53 A.D.3d 681, 860 N.Y.S.2d 680 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2008).

53 A.D.3d 681 (People v. Robinson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

People v. Deleon
149 A.D.3d 1273 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2017)
People v. Knox
137 A.D.3d 1330 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2016)
People v. Simmons
115 A.D.3d 1018 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2014)
People v. Mercado
113 A.D.3d 930 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2014)
People v. Shuaib
111 A.D.3d 1055 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2013)
People v. Pierce
106 A.D.3d 1198 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2013)
People v. Porter
82 A.D.3d 1412 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2011)
People v. Thompson
75 A.D.3d 760 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2010)
People v. Young
74 A.D.3d 1471 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2010)
People v. Hamms
55 A.D.3d 1142 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2008)
People v. Mitchell
55 A.D.3d 1048 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2008)