People v. Young

296 A.D.2d 588, 746 N.Y.S.2d 195, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7110
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided July 3, 2002·Published·Cited by 15 cases

Opinions

Carpinello, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Albany County (Breslin, J.), rendered September 22, 1998, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of attempted murder in the first degree (two counts), attempted aggravated assault upon a police or peace officer (two counts), criminal possession of a weapon in the [589] second degree (two counts), reckless endangerment in the first degree (two counts) and robbery in the second degree.

In February 1995, two City of Albany police officers who responded to the report of a robbery were shot at by a fleeing suspect, who avoided capture. Neither of the robbery victims could identify their two assailants and the officers were unable to identify the shooter. Two years later, the investigation revealed information which led to defendant’s arrest in North Carolina. He was charged in a nine-count indictment with a number of crimes arising out of the February 1995 incident, including two counts each of attempted murder in the first degree and reckless endangerment in the first degree and a single count of robbery in the second degree. Michael Cancer was named as a codefendant in the robbery count. Defendant was tried separately and found guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to an aggregate total of 57V2 years to life in prison, which included consecutive terms of 25 years to life on the attempted murder counts and a consecutive sentence of lxh to 15 years on the robbery count. He now appeals.

Relying on People v Pelchat (62 NY2d 97), defendant first claims that the People were obligated to obtain a superceding indictment upon learning that DNA testing excluded defendant as the source of some blood found in the vicinity of the shooting. Defendant argues that these test results disproved the prosecution’s theory as presented to the grand jury that defendant left a trail of blood after the shooting. In contrast to Pelchat, however, defendant was convicted after trial, not as the result of a guilty plea. He therefore is precluded from raising this claim directed at the proof before the grand jury (see, People v Bryant, 234 AD2d 605, lv denied 89 NY2d 1032; People v Bey, 179 AD2d 905, lvs denied 79 NY2d 918, 1046).

With regard to defendant’s claim that the verdict finding him guilty of both attempted murder and reckless endangerment is inconsistent, we note that he failed to preserve the issue for our review by appropriate objection before the jury was discharged, at a time when the alleged error could have been corrected (see, People v Alfaro, 66 NY2d 985; People v Robinson, 258 AD2d 817, lv denied 93 NY2d 978). In addition, if defendant is" correct, the error occurred when County Court submitted the crimes to the jury without directing that they be considered in the alternative (see, People v Gallagher, 69 NY2d 525, 530). However, defendant neither requested submission in the alternative nor objected to the charge as given. Having concluded that the claim was not preserved as an issue of law by appropriate objection, we also decline to exercise our [590] discretionary authority to take remedial action in the interest of justice (see, People v Hildreth, 279 AD2d 791, 793-794, lv denied 96 NY2d 940).

Defendant further claims that the admission over his objection of two hearsay statements by his robbery accomplice, Cancer, denied his constitutional right under the Confrontation Clause (see, US Const 6th Amend; NY Const, art I, § 6) to cross-examine an adverse witness. The first of the statements occurred shortly before the robbery when Cancer and defendant appeared at the house of a friend, Eugene Morrow, and asked to borrow a hooded sweatshirt. Morrow gave them the sweatshirt and asked the two of them what they were “getting into.” Cancer replied that “they was going to get somebody.” The second of the challenged statements occurred several days after the incident when another friend, Abdullah McKnight, had a conversation with Cancer regarding defendant. During that conversation, Cancer said that “we robbed some guys for the[ir] coats.” Morrow and McKnight were permitted to testify at trial about Cancer’s statements.

Defendant’s claim that the admission of the statements violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause is different than a claim that the statements were inadmissible under common-law hearsay rules (see, People v Kello, 96 NY2d 740, 743). Thus, “[t]he Supreme Court has developed a two-part test ‘for determining when incriminating statements admissible under an exception to the hearsay rule also meet the requirements of the Confrontation Clause’ ” (People v James, 93 NY2d 620, 641, quoting Idaho v Wright, 497 US 805, 814). Inasmuch as defendant’s objections at trial and here on appeal are based solely on the Confrontation Clause, he waived any claim that the statements were inadmissible under common-law hearsay rules.

Pursuant to the two-part test established for Confrontation Clause purposes, the hearsay declarant must be unavailable to testify and the statement must bear sufficient indicia of reliability (see, People v Sanders, 56 NY2d 51, 64). In this case, Cancer’s unavailability is undisputed and, therefore, our focus is on the reliability of the statements. “The indicia of reliability requirement can ‘be met in either of two circumstances: where the hearsay statement “falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception,” or where it is supported by “a showing of particularized guarantees of trustworthiness” ’ ” (People v James, supra at 641, quoting Idaho v Wright, supra at 816, quoting Ohio v Roberts, 448 US 56, 66). In this case, we need not decide whether the statements fall within a hearsay exception that [591] has been recognized as “firmly rooted,” for they satisfy the second condition.

The relevant factors to be considered in determining whether a statement is supported by particularized guarantees of trustworthiness include spontaneity, repetition, the mental state of the declarant, absence of motive to fabricate, unlikelihood of faulty recollection, the degree to which the statement was against the declarant’s penal interest, the relationship between the declarant and the person to whom the statement was made, whether there was a coercive atmosphere, whether it was made in response to questioning and whether the statements reflect an attempt to shift blame or curry favor (see, People v James, supra at 642-643). With these factors in mind, we conclude that the nature of Cancer’s self-inculpatory statements, when they were made and to whom they were made, together with the absence of any motive to falsify, the absence of any coercive atmosphere and the absence of any attempt to shift blame, demonstrate that the circumstances surrounding those statements bear sufficient indicia of reliability to satisfy constitutional requirements (see, id. at 643).

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People v. Young, 296 A.D.2d 588, 746 N.Y.S.2d 195, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7110 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2002).

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