People v. Rodriguez

2017 NY Slip Op 5799, 153 A.D.3d 235, 59 N.Y.S.3d 337
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJuly 25, 2017
Docket9/13 5471/09 3424
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 2017 NY Slip Op 5799 (People v. Rodriguez) 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. Rodriguez, 2017 NY Slip Op 5799, 153 A.D.3d 235, 59 N.Y.S.3d 337 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Kahn, J.

On this appeal, we are asked to decide whether the judgment convicting defendant of burglary in the second degree (the burglary conviction), following a jury trial, should be vacated on the grounds that the verdict was unsupported by legally sufficient evidence, or that the verdict did not comport with the weight of the evidence, or that defendant was deprived of his right of confrontation at trial. Should we answer that question in the affirmative, we are further asked to determine whether the judgment convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of various counts in a separate indictment (the plea conviction), should also be vacated on the ground that defendant’s guilty plea was induced by a promise that his sentences for the burglary and the plea convictions would run concurrently. Additionally, we are asked to decide whether the sentences imposed for both convictions were excessive. For the reasons that follow, we hold that both judgments should be affirmed and that the sentences imposed were not excessive.

I. Burglary Conviction

A. Legal Insufficiency and Weight of the Evidence Claims

The verdict was supported by legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). Defendant’s identity as the burglar was strongly established by the match of his known DNA to the DNA found on wire cutters that had been stored within the glass enclosure on the victim’s rooftop deck but were found tucked between cushions on the sofa in her apartment after the burglary (see People v Harrison, 22 AD3d 236, 236 [1st Dept 2005] [rejecting sufficiency and weight claims where “(t)he proof connecting defendant with the crime [238]*238consisted almost entirely of DNA evidence,” which “was particularly powerful and established defendant’s identity beyond a reasonable doubt”], lv denied 6 NY3d 754 [2005]).

B. Confrontation Clause Claim

1. Defendant’s Contention

Defendant claims that he was deprived of his Sixth Amendment right of confrontation under the Federal and State Constitutions by the introduction into evidence at trial of laboratory reports of DNA testing linking him to the crime based solely upon the testimony of Melissa Huyck, a criminalist from the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) who was not among the analysts who performed, witnessed or supervised the testing. Defendant’s Confrontation Clause claim is unpreserved, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject it. However, we find that an extended discussion of the merits is warranted.

2. Legal Standards

As the accused in a criminal prosecution, a defendant has the right to be confronted with the witnesses who bear testimony against him (Crawford v Washington, 541 US 36, 51 [2004]). Therefore, “[a]s a rule, if an out-of-court statement is testimonial in nature, it may not be introduced against the accused at trial unless the witness who made the statement is unavailable and the accused has had a prior opportunity to confront that witness” (Bullcoming v New Mexico, 564 US 647, 657 [2011]).

“[A] statement will be treated as testimonial only if it was ‘procured with a primary purpose of creating an out-of-court substitute for trial testimony’ ” (People v Pealer, 20 NY3d 447, 453 [2013], cert denied 571 US —, 134 S Ct 105 [2013], quoting Michigan v Bryant, 562 US 344, 358 [2011]; see Davis v Washington, 547 US 813, 822 [2006] [“(Statements) are testimonial when the circumstances objectively indicate that . . . the primary purpose ... is to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution”]).

Our Court of Appeals has set forth a test to be used in determining whether a report was prepared for such a “primary purpose” and is, therefore, testimonial. The “primary purpose” test consists of four factors:

“ ‘(1) whether the agency that produced the record is independent of law enforcement; (2) whether it [239]*239reflects objective facts at the time of their recording; (3) whether the report has been biased in favor of law enforcement; and (4) whether the report accuses the defendant by directly linking him or her to the crime’ ” (People v Pealer, 20 NY3d at 454, quoting People v Brown, 13 NY3d 332, 339-340 [2009]; see People v Freycinet, 11 NY3d 38, 41 [2008]).

Recently, in People v John (27 NY3d 294 [2016]), our Court of Appeals reaffirmed the centrality of the primary purpose test for Confrontation Clause purposes (id. at 307 [“(W)e have deemed the primary purpose test essential to determining whether particular evidence is testimonial hearsay requiring the declarant to be a live witness at trial”]).

3. Supreme Court’s Trial Rulings

Notably, at trial, before OCME criminalist Huyck testified concerning the DNA testing performed in this case, the People sought a ruling from the court on the scope of evidence it would permit them to introduce from the OCME and Huyck about the DNA testing. Defense counsel argued against the introduction of reports of conclusions reached by nontestifying examiners, and urged that the admissible evidence from OCME’s files should be limited to the pages of documents reflecting raw data that had been personally reviewed and initialed by Huyck.

Supreme Court’s ruling was as follows: “The raw data, the data concerning the [DNA] testing comes in. What [Huyck] did comes in. All the other stuff about police reports and other material is out.” Immediately after issuing that ruling, Supreme Court reiterated and clarified the ruling in the following manner: “So the raw data made by the people who actually did the test is admissible. As far as the data is concerned, what this witness [Huyck] did is admissible, not the other conclusions by these other individuals.”

Huyck then proceeded to testify concerning the testing of DNA material taken from the wire cutters and the development of the DNA profile of an unknown male donor denominated as Male Donor A. Later that same day, before Huyck testified as to the DNA testing of the buccal swabs taken from defendant, Supreme Court further explained and clarified its earlier ruling. So much of that clarification as is relevant here is as follows:

“[M]y intention is to permit only the raw data [240]*240contained in these files so that ultimately Miss Huyck will ultimately use it to testify about her own comparisons to go before the jury. Only that data is to be considered evidence with respect to these files, and all extraneous material contained in the files, including . . . opinions of nontestifying examiners and experts [,] must be deleted.”

Supreme Court’s rulings were in keeping with the requirements of the Crawford rule as established under the case law in effect at that time. They adhered to federal constitutional standards by limiting the admission of statement evidence proffered in conjunction with Huyck’s testimony to relevant evidence that either “was not prepared for the primary purpose of accusing a targeted individual” (Williams v Illinois,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2017 NY Slip Op 5799, 153 A.D.3d 235, 59 N.Y.S.3d 337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-rodriguez-nyappdiv-2017.