People v. Santiago

75 A.D.3d 163, 900 N.Y.S.2d 273
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided May 6, 2010·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Buckley, J.

Based on the identification testimony of the victim and two witnesses, a jury convicted defendant of assault in the first degree for repeatedly slashing a woman with a box cutter in a subway station.

In the early morning hours of January 10, 2003, the victim was standing on a well-lit subway platform with 5 to 10 other people, when she noticed defendant make eye contact with her, step behind a pillar, and reappear closer to her. Defendant repeated the sequence, during the course of which he passed by Pablo Alarcon, who also made eye contact with him. Both the victim and Alarcon took particular note of defendant, due to his strange behavior and multiple layers of clothing, including a red hood, dark jacket, and jeans. Although defendant’s face was partially covered by the hood, Alarcon could see that he was an Hispanic of slightly darker complexion than Alarcon himself, had a dark goatee and eyebrows, and appeared to be in his mid-20s; Alarcon considered defendant’s facial expression to be suspicious and frightening.

Edwin Rios entered the station and walked past the victim and defendant, who by then were conversing. Rios’s attention was first drawn to the victim, an attractive young lady wearing a short skirt, but he also observed defendant’s face and clothing.

Defendant, now arm’s length distant from the victim, paced in front of her for a few seconds and then asked if she was “working.” She did not understand the question, and requested clarification. He asked if she was “an escort.” When the victim replied in the negative, defendant began to slash at her head repeatedly with a box cutter, causing her to bleed profusely and severing her thumb. From about 15 feet away, Rios turned to see defendant attacking the victim, who was attempting to defend herself. Hearing screaming, Alarcon also looked to see the assault. Defendant then broke off his attack and ran past Rios, who saw his face again, as well as an orange box cutter in [165]*165his hand, and Alarcon, who observed defendant put in his pocket what appeared to be a “construction knife” used “to cut sheet rock.” Defendant jumped onto the tracks and escaped down the tunnel, while the victim, calling for help, went up the station stairwell.

The victim was taken to the hospital, where she described her assailant to the police as a tan-skinned Hispanic man, about five feet, eight inches tall, in his late 20s or early 30s, with a mustache that continued down his chin. The next day, she worked with a police artist to create a sketch of the assailant. Two days after that, the police went to the subway station as part of an investigation and spoke with Rios, who described the assailant as a light-skinned Hispanic with a goatee similar to Rios’s own, in his late 20s, about five feet, eight inches tall, of medium build, and wearing blue jeans, a dark blue sweater, and a hood. Rios believed that the police sketch accurately portrayed the assailant.

On January 23rd, 13 days after the incident, Alarcon looked at a photo array, but did not recognize anyone. The next day, the victim identified defendant from a photo array. On January 25th, defendant was taken into custody, and the day after that the victim and Alarcon separately viewed a lineup. The victim immediately identified defendant as her attacker. Although Alar-con was “eighty percent” certain that defendant was the assailant, he told the police that he did not recognize anyone, because he harbored trepidations regarding his immigration status. The day after the lineup, Alarcon saw a photograph in a newspaper depicting defendant in handcuffs and accompanied by two police officers. Alarcon showed the photograph to his supervisor, but still did not mention anything to the authorities. In December 2003, 11 months after the attack, an assistant district attorney telephoned Alarcon, who admitted that he had recognized someone in the lineup and in the newspaper. Upon being shown a photograph of the lineup, Alarcon identified defendant.

In January 2004, Rios, who had not previously been shown any photographs, viewed a lineup. Even though defendant had shaved off most of his goatee by then, Rios identified him.

The victim and Rios positively identified defendant in the courtroom, while Alarcon identified him with 80% certainty.

The hearing court properly denied defendant’s motion to suppress the identification testimony. The record, including the lineup photographs, establishes that the composition of the lineups was not unduly suggestive (see People v Chipp, 75 NY2d [166]*166327, 336 [1990], cert denied 498 US 833 [1990]). The differences between defendant and the fillers in facial hair and apparent age were not so distinguishing as to single out defendant (see id.; People v Amuso, 39 AD3d 425 [2007], lv denied 9 NY3d 862 [2007]; People v Evans, 202 AD2d 377 [1994], lv denied 83 NY2d 966 [1994]). Any disparities in height and weight were minimized by the fact that the lineup participants were viewed while seated and holding large numbered cards in front of their torsos (see Amuso, 39 AD3d at 425-426). There is no basis for disturbing the court’s credibility findings that Alarcon recognized defendant at the initial lineup but told the police otherwise out of fear concerning his immigration status, and that his identification was not the result of postlineup events (see People v Garcia, 284 AD2d 106, 107 [2001], lv denied 97 NY2d 641 [2001]). Since defendant himself elicited at trial Alarcon’s photographic identification, he cannot be heard to complain now of its introduction (see People v Cuiman, 229 AD2d 280, 282 [1997], lv denied 90 NY2d 903 [1997]).

The only preserved challenge to the prosecutor’s summation concerns a remark to which defendant objected as not supported by testimony; however, we reject that claim. Defendant’s remaining objections to the prosecutor’s closing statement are unpreserved for review, and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, none of the cited comments exceeded the broad latitude accorded on summation (see People v D'Alessandro, 184 AD2d 114, 119 [1992], lv denied 81 NY2d 884 [1993]).

Defendant’s argument regarding the jury charge on unanimity is also unpreserved (see People v Parra, 58 AD3d 479 [2009], lv denied 12 NY3d 820 [2009]), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we find that the charge, as a whole, conveyed the proper legal principles (see People v Drake, 7 NY3d 28, 34 [2006]), and a jury poll confirmed that the verdict was, in fact, unanimous.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). The sentence was not excessive, and we decline to reduce it in the interest of justice.

The remaining issue is whether the court should have allowed defendant to present expert testimony regarding identifications or ordered a Frye hearing on the matter. Initially, defendant’s assertion that the trial court was bound by the law of the case doctrine to conduct a Frye hearing is belied by the plain [167]*167language of the earlier Justice’s preliminary ruling on the matter.

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

People v. Santiago, 75 A.D.3d 163, 900 N.Y.S.2d 273 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2010).

75 A.D.3d 163 (People v. Santiago) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

People v. Vaughn
2024 NY Slip Op 05874 (New York Court of Appeals, 2024)
People v. Santiago
958 N.E.2d 874 (New York Court of Appeals, 2011)