People v. Tedesco

143 A.D.2d 155, 531 N.Y.S.2d 609, 1988 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8399
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedAugust 8, 1988
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 143 A.D.2d 155 (People v. Tedesco) 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. Tedesco, 143 A.D.2d 155, 531 N.Y.S.2d 609, 1988 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8399 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinion

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Suffolk County (Weissman, J.), rendered December 9, 1982, convicting him of murder in the second degree (four counts), attempted murder in the second degree, robbery in the first degree (two counts) and assault in the first degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. The appeal brings up for review the denial, after a hearing, of that branch of the defendant’s omnibus motion which was to suppress identification testimony.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

On December 8, 1981, at about 10:00 a.m., the defendant and his codefendant Joseph Sullivan robbed Dennis Dukofsky, a pharmacist at the Prescription Den drugstore in Selden, New York. In the evening on that same date the defendant and Sullivan proceeded to an apartment shared by Virginia Carson and Andrew Soldo located at the Tall Oaks apartment complex in Selden where, during the course of a aborted drug transaction, they robbed, shot and knifed Carson, Soldo and a third individual, Richard Bretz. Carson and Bretz died as a result of the wounds suffered in the attack but Soldo remarkably survived the brutal assault. Following a joint trial, a jury convicted the defendant and Sullivan of four counts of murder in the second degree (two counts of intentional murder and two counts of felony murder; Penal Law § 125.25 [1], [3]), attempted murder in the second degree (Penal Law §§ 110.00, 125.25 [1]), two counts of robbery in the first degree (two counts) (Penal Law § 160.15 [4]), and assault in the first degree (Penal Law § 120.10 [1]).

Prior to the trial, a Wade hearing was conducted to determine, inter alia, whether two photographic arrays shown to the pharmacist Dukofsky on December 10, 1981, two days after the commission of the robbery, were so unduly suggestive as to be violative of due process and tainted the in-court identification of the defendant. Detective Russell Doring, a 19-[156]*156year veteran of the Suffolk County Police Department, testified that on December 10, 1981, he was given two photographs of the defendant and two photographs of the codefendant Sullivan by an officer of the Suffolk County Homicide Squad. Detective Doring prepared two photographic arrays consisting of six photographs each. Each array contained a photograph of the defendant and of Sullivan. In order to supply photographs of individuals who resembled the defendant and Sullivan, Detective Doring had reviewed 5 or 6 carousels each of which contained 35 or 40 photographs. After viewing separately the two arrays, Dukofsky selected the defendant’s picture from each. The defendant makes no specific claim that the photographic arrays were improperly presented. Rather he argues that the two photographic arrays viewed by Dukofsky were impermissibly suggestive because in one array he was the only man featured wearing a suit and in the second array his photograph was glossier than the other five photographs. An examination of the two arrays employed in this case demonstrates that they did not create a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification (see, People v Coleman, 114 AD2d 906). Contrary to the defendant’s contention, the victim had not described the perpetrators of the robbery as wearing suits on the date of the crime. Thus, although the better practice might have been to have displayed photographs of individuals who were similarly attired, the mere fact that the defendant’s photograph showed him wearing a suit did not serve to draw the viewer’s attention to the defendant’s picture and indicate that the police had made a particular selection (see, People v Olkoski, 131 AD2d 706; People v Emmons, 123 AD2d 475, lv denied 69 NY2d 827; cf., People v Grant, 130 AD2d 589, lv denied 70 NY2d 647). Nor did the fact that the quality of the defendant’s photograph in the second array differed from that of the other five photographs render the array unduly suggestive, particularly since the photographs showed full views of individuals who were substantially similar in appearance to the defendant (see, People v Emmons, supra; People v Fox, 65 AD2d 880).

The defendant also claims that the People failed to establish his guilt of the robbery of Carson, Soldo and Bretz beyond a reasonable doubt and, therefore, his guilt of felony murder was not proved. Although the evidence of the robbery adduced at trial was essentially circumstantial, that evidence was legally sufficient to establish the defendant’s guilt and to exclude to a moral certainty every reasonable hypothesis of innocence (see, People v Morgan, 66 NY2d 255, 256; People v [157]*157Benzinger, 36 NY2d 29, 32; People v Sims, 110 AD2d 214, 222, lv denied 67 NY2d 657).

The evidence in this case reveals that several days prior to the date of the crimes charged the defendant and his codefendant were at the Soldo apartment. At that time, in response to an inquiry from Bretz, the defendant promised to try to obtain an ounce of cocaine at a cost of $2,300. On December 8, 1981, the defendant called Soldo to arrange delivery of the cocaine to Bretz. The defendant was to arrive at Soldo’s apartment at 7:00 p.m. Pursuant to Soldo’s direction, Bretz arrived at 6:30 p.m. and when Soldo asked whether he had the money for the drugs, Bretz responded by counting 23 $100 bills onto the dining room table. Shortly thereafter, the defendant and Sullivan arrived at the Soldo apartment. Virginia Carson opened the apartment door. Immediately upon gaining entry to the apartment, Sullivan produced a gun and shot Soldo, Carson and Bretz in quick succession. The defendant cut each victim’s throat in response to Sullivan’s direction to "[m]ake sure they’re dead”. The police who responded to the scene at 9:10 p.m. found the apartment door unlocked and no trace of the $2,300.

The defendant argues that during the two-hour period between the shootings and the arrival of the police anyone could have entered the unlocked apartment and taken the money. The testimony of Soldo and Soldo’s downstairs neighbor reveals, however, that during that period Soldo was unconscious for only about 30 minutes. There is no proof that anyone entered the apartment after the defendant’s departure and prior to the arrival of the police. The only reasonable inference to be drawn from these facts was that the defendant and his accomplice entered the Soldo apartment with the intent to take the money for the drug transaction and, indeed, in pursuit of that goal brutally attacked the victims. From this evidence, the jury could properly infer that the defendant and Sullivan took the $2,300. The mere possibility that someone other than the defendant may have taken the money does not preclude a guilty verdict as to the robbery and felony murder charges. It is the function of the jurors to assess conflicting evidence and they may credit some items of evidence while rejecting other evidence (see, People v Ford, 66 NY2d 428, 437).

Equally unpersuasive is the defendant’s claim that the identification testimony of Dukofsky was not sufficient to support his conviction of robbery in the first degree involving the pharmacy. The defendant’s argument is based upon the [158]*158conclusion that the photographic arrays exhibited to the victim were unduly suggestive. This court rejects that conclusion thereby leaving resolution of the accuracy of the identification testimony as a question for the jury. Its resolution in this regard is entitled to great weight on appeal (see, People v Askinazi, 130 AD2d 665, 666, lv denied 70 NY2d 709).

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Bluebook (online)
143 A.D.2d 155, 531 N.Y.S.2d 609, 1988 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-tedesco-nyappdiv-1988.