People v. Bolino

• Decision Date: 30 January 1989
• Citation: 146 A.D.2d 790,537 N.Y.S.2d 268
• Parties: The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Louis BOLINO, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 268

537 N.Y.S.2d 268

146 A.D.2d 790

The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Louis BOLINO, Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division Second Department.

Jan. 30, 1989.

Flamhaft Levy Kamins Hirsch & Booth, Brooklyn (Harold L. Levy, of counsel), for appellant.

Elizabeth Holtzman, Dist. Atty., Brooklyn (Barbara D. Underwood, Robin Bernstein and James B. Duggan, of counsel), for respondent.

Before MANGANO, J.P., and BROWN, KUNZEMAN and KOOPER, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Lombardo, J.), rendered January 22, 1988, convicting him of criminally negligent homicide, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed. The case is remitted to the Supreme Court, Kings County for further proceedings pursuant to CPL 460.50(5).

On the evening of September 26, 1986, Regina Paul, a prostitute, was fatally shot while on the defendant's boat.

Later that evening the defendant gave two similar statements, one to a detective, and another to an assistant district attorney, in which he described his involvement in the death of Ms. Paul. These statements formed a crucial part of the People's case against the defendant. In them the defendant gave the following account of the events in question. The defendant spent the afternoon of September 26, 1986, drinking heavily with some friends. He met his wife at a subway station, and after quarrelling with her throughout the evening, finally left his home at approximately 10 P.M., drove to Coney Island, and picked up Ms. Paul. He drove her to his boat in the Gerritsen Beach area, and paid her $50 in advance, for sex. The defendant then drank some vodka and snorted cocaine which he bought from Ms. Paul for an additional $50. The defendant was not satisfied with his sexual encounter with Ms. Paul and asked for a refund of his $50. Ms. Paul then brandished a gun, and attempted to rob him at gunpoint. In an ensuing struggle over possession and control of the gun, Ms. Paul was shot. The defendant put Ms. Paul on the dock, but accidentally dropped her in the water. He did not go in after her since he could not swim. Instead, he cleaned the blood off the boat. The defendant then drove to the Marine Park Bridge, tossed the gun over the side of the bridge, and returned home.

The People also introduced other evidence which indicated that (1) Ms. Paul's body was found, with a bullet in her head and naked from the waist down, at approximately 9:25 A.M. on September 27, 1986, floating in the water off Gerritsen Beach not far from the defendant's boat, and (2) blood stains and a spent shell casing were found on the defendant's boat. In addition, the medical examiner testified that (1) the cause of death was a brain hemorrhage caused by a gunshot wound below Ms. Paul's left eye, and (2) this gunshot went through the palm of Ms. Paul's left hand, and then entered her head. The medical examiner further testified that it was possible Ms. Paul had her left hand in front of her eye and was leaning slightly back when the gun was fired from point blank range. Finally, the medical examiner testified that Ms. Paul would have had to be in an unnatural position to have fired the shot herself.

On the instant appeal the defendant argues, inter alia, that the proof of his guilt was purely circumstantial and that the court therefore committed reversible error in failing to give a circumstantial evidence charge. Specifically, the defendant argues that his statements were, at best, admissions, which constituted only circumstantial evidence of his guilt, and were not confessions, which would constitute direct acknowledgements of guilt.

We disagree with this argument.

In People v. Sanchez, 61 N.Y.2d 1022, 475 N.Y.S.2d 376, 463 N.E.2d 1228, the defendant was accused of the strangulation killing of his former girlfriend's mother. The defendant admitted to prosecution officials that he was present at the victim's apartment on the night of the murder and hit the victim twice. The trial court denied the defendant's request for a " 'total circumstantial charge' " stating that the defendant's statements " 'take it out of an entire circumstantial case' " and that " 'it is up to the jury how to define the statement' " (People v. Sanchez, supra, at 1023, 475 N.Y.S.2d 376, 463 N.E.2d 1228). The court instructed the jury that the People were relying on direct as well as circumstantial evidence, and did not instruct the jury to review the prosecution's entire case against the rigorous standard applicable when it relies on circumstantial evidence alone. In reversing the defendant's conviction and granting the defendant a new trial, the Court of Appeals held (People v. Sanchez, supra, at 1023, 475 N.Y.S.2d 376, 463 N.E.2d 1228):

"Respondent's statements constituted circumstantial, not direct, evidence of guilt. Since the case was submitted to the jury on the theory that the cause of death was strangulation by a telephone wire, the key...