People v. Allen
| Citation | 2014 N.Y. Slip Op. 08222,24 N.Y.3d 441,999 N.Y.S.2d 350,24 N.E.3d 586 |
| Decision Date | 25 November 2014 |
| Docket Number | No. 206.,206. |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Terrell ALLEN, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals |
Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, Criminal Appeals Bureau, New York City (Angie Louie of counsel), for appellant.
Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens (Nancy Fitzpatrick Talcott and John M. Castellano of counsel), for respondent.
The primary issue presented by this appeal is whether a duplicity argument based on trial evidence must be preserved for appeal where the count is not duplicitous on the face of the indictment. We hold that such error must be preserved, and find that none of the other issues raised by defendant warrant reversal.
On June 22, 2008, shortly before 1:30 a.m. , defendant attempted to shoot the victim while he was in the street, but the
gun did not fire. Approximately 10 minutes later, by the stoop in front of the victim's house, defendant fired two shots, one missing and one hitting the victim in the head and killing him.
The victim's wife witnessed some of the events leading up to the shooting, and on the night of the murder, spoke to police officers about what she saw. She mentioned to Detective Mark Lobel the name of the codefendant in this case (Welds), who told police that defendant had fired the gun. Three days later, defendant was arrested by police, including Detective Lobel, in New Jersey, after he attempted to avoid arrest by hiding in an attic. Police brought defendant to the 113th precinct in Queens. Detective Lobel conducted a lineup at the station, and the victim's wife identified defendant as the shooter. Ballistics evidence showed that the bullet recovered at the scene and the bullet recovered from the victim's body were fired from the same gun. Defendant and Welds were charged in a single indictment. Welds' case was ultimately severed from defendant's. Welds stood trial first and was convicted by a jury of murder in the second degree. Facing a sentence of up to 15 years to life, Welds agreed to testify against defendant in exchange for a promise of leniency. Welds was sentenced to 7 ½ years to life.
Defendant was charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of attempted second-degree murder among other charges. The indictment charged defendant and codefendant with:
“murder in the second degree, committed as follows: The defendants, on or about June 22, 2008, in the County of Queens, acting in concert with each other and with the intent to cause the death of Kevin Macklin, caused the death of Kevin Macklin, by luring him off the front steps of his home and shooting him with a loaded firearm.”
Defendant, alone, was charged with:
“attempted murder in the second degree, committed as follows: The defendant, on or about June 22, 2008, in the County of Queens[,] and with the intent to cause the death of Kevin Macklin, attempted to cause the death of Kevin Macklin by discharging a loaded firearm at and in his direction.”
Defendant filed a request for a bill of particulars, seeking specification of the substance of each aspect of defendant's conduct encompassed by each charge, the distinctions in conduct
between the counts of the indictment, and the exact date, time and location of the alleged crimes charged. Defendant also filed an omnibus motion, which challenged the indictment as multiplicitous, arguing:
After a Wade hearing, Supreme Court denied defendant's motion to suppress identification testimony, which had claimed, inter alia, that the identification was made in a lineup that was conducted in violation of defendant's right to counsel. There was conflicting testimony from defendant and the police officers as to whether or not defendant had requested the presence of his attorney at the lineup. The court concluded that “even if defendant Allen in fact had told detectives prior to the lineup that he wanted his lawyer, they were under no obligation to contact or provide counsel at the lineup.”
During opening arguments, the People raised both incidents of defendant attempting to shoot the victim (both the gun not firing, and the missed shot in front of the house 10 minutes later), applying the term “attempted murder” only to the earlier one. Defendant made no objection. During the testimony of the
People's witnesses, the prosecution asked questions about both incidents. The People presented three eyewitnesses who testified about the events that occurred that night, ballistics evidence, and an inculpatory statement made by defendant to one of the witnesses an hour after the shooting. The People also presented evidence of defendant's attempts to avoid apprehension and arrest by the police. During trial, the court refused to allow defendant to introduce the extrinsic evidence, consisting of several police reports of the incident, to impeach the credibility of one of the People's witnesses on the stand. According to the officers who wrote these reports, they were based on secondhand information since neither of the officers had spoken to the witness directly.
In the closing argument, the prosecutor did not clarify which incident formed the basis of the attempted murder count. The court also did not specify which conduct the attempted murder charge was based upon, stating:
Defendant did not object to the charge.
Defendant was convicted on all counts, and sentenced to 25 years to life for murder, 25 years for attempted murder, 15 years for each of two criminal possession of a weapon counts, and one year for menacing. The attempted murder sentence was imposed consecutively to the other counts.
The Appellate Division unanimously modified the judgment of conviction, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, by directing that all the terms of imprisonment run concurrently with each other, and as so modified, affirmed, holding that: (1) although the trial court erred in denying defendant's motion to suppress the lineup identification, the error was harmless; (2) the trial court properly refused to allow defendant to introduce extrinsic evidence on a collateral matter to impeach
the credibility of a witness; and (3) the duplicity argument was unpreserved (105 A.D.3d 754, 962 N.Y.S.2d 347 [2d Dept.2013] ).1
“An indictment is duplicitous when a single count charges more than one offense” ( People v. Alonzo, 16 N.Y.3d 267, 269, 920 N.Y.S.2d 302, 945 N.E.2d 495 [2011] ). Defendant argues that the count of the indictment charging him with attempted murder was rendered duplicitous due to events that unfolded during the course of the trial.
The indictment in this case appears to cite the incident that occurred in front of the victim's house (the two shots fired within seconds of each other) as the basis for the attempted murder count against defendant. The bill of particulars, which says that “defendant ... pointed a pistol ... and attempted to shoot ... and thereafter ... fire[d],” may be read as tying the attempted murder charge to the earlier incident (the misfire), but it does not eliminate the ambiguity. At trial, beginning with the opening statement, the People presented to the jury two separate incidents in which a gun was pointed at the victim, and defendant pulled the trigger. Neither the People, in their closing argument, nor the court, in its instructions to the jury, clarified the basis of the attempted murder count. Thus defendant contends that the jury verdict on the attempted murder count could have represented either a finding as to the first...
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