Tran v. Kwok Bun Lee

29 A.D.3d 88, 810 N.Y.S.2d 467
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 9, 2006
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 29 A.D.3d 88 (Tran v. Kwok Bun Lee) 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
Tran v. Kwok Bun Lee, 29 A.D.3d 88, 810 N.Y.S.2d 467 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Nardelli, J.

In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether Supreme Court properly denied the application of petitioner, brought pursuant to the Uniform Act to Secure the Attendance of Witnesses from Without the State in Criminal Proceedings (CPL 640.10), for a subpoena directing respondent to testify as a material and necessary witness in a pending criminal action in the state of California.

Petitioner Bobby Tran has been charged with murder in the first degree (Cal Penal Code §§ 187, 189) and personal use of a firearm (Cal Penal Code § 12022.53 [a] [1]) by the State of California (People of State of Cal. v Bobby Tran [Case No. SC55L96A]), and his case is pending in the Department of the Presiding Criminal Judge of the Superior Court of San Mateo County, California. He is alleged to have shot and killed Xin Jiang in her San Francisco apartment on January 10, 1999. Jiang’s body was not discovered until almost 3½ years later, on June 7, 2002, in a storage facility in Daly City, California.

It was learned during the course of the investigation that petitioner rented the aforementioned storage space under an alias, and that his girlfriend informed police that petitioner disappeared on January 12, 1999, two days after the alleged date of Jiang’s death. Petitioner alleges that pretrial discovery indicates that there are no eyewitnesses to the crime and no forensic evidence tying him to the shooting.

Petitioner asserts that it is anticipated he will testify at trial that a third person, David Chang, an acquaintance of both Tran and the victim, shot and killed Jiang and just a few days later, on January 15, 1999, met with Tran to enlist his help in the disposal of Jiang’s body. Tran will purportedly testify that he and Chang thereafter moved Jiang’s body to the storage facility on January 18, 1999, and that Chang had accompanied him to the storage facility on more than two other occasions. The police [90]*90reports in this matter allegedly state that an employee of the storage facility where the body was discovered told police investigators that Tran was observed at the storage facility in the company of another Asian male on more than two occasions prior to the discovery of the body. David Chang is an Asian male.

In contrast, Chang informed police investigators that, at the request of Tran’s girlfriend, he searched for petitioner in the days after the shooting but was unable to locate him. Chang claimed the next time he saw petitioner was at some interval in 2000 or 2001 in the state of California.

Petitioner, with regard to the within application, alleges that respondent Kwok Bun Lee, a New York resident, was present for the meeting between himself and Chang on January 15, 1999, when the disposal of Jiang’s body was discussed, and at meetings in New York in 1999 between petitioner and Chang after Jiang’s body had been secreted. Petitioner acknowledges that Lee did not hear the content of the conversations between himself and Chang, but states that Lee’s testimony places Chang with petitioner at a time petitioner claims he discussed the disposal of Jiang’s body with Chang, and during a frame of time when Chang maintains he searched for petitioner and was unable to locate him. Petitioner states that it is anticipated the prosecution will argue that his testimony regarding his meetings with Chang is self-serving and should not be believed absent corroboration, and that Lee’s testimony will not only verify that he met with Chang on or about the date the disposal of the body was discussed, but will also serve to contradict Chang’s statements to the police and undermine his credibility.

Judge H. James Ellis of the Superior Court of the State of California, on September 27, 2004, executed a certificate for issuance of out of state subpoena (the Certificate), directing the appearance of respondent at petitioner’s trial. The Certificate states, inter alia, “that Kwok Bun Lee is a material and necessary witness” and his presence is “required for two days.”

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Related

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110 A.D.3d 134 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
29 A.D.3d 88, 810 N.Y.S.2d 467, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tran-v-kwok-bun-lee-nyappdiv-2006.