People v. Christopher

• Decision Date: 25 May 1984
• Citation: 476 N.Y.S.2d 640,101 A.D.2d 504
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Joseph G. CHRISTOPHER, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 640

476 N.Y.S.2d 640

101 A.D.2d 504

PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Joseph G. CHRISTOPHER, Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division,

Fourth Department.

May 25, 1984.

Rose H. Sconiers, Buffalo, for appellant (John Ziegler, Buffalo, of counsel).

Richard J. Arcara, Dist. Atty., Buffalo, for respondent (John DeFranks, Asst. Dist. Atty., Buffalo, of counsel).

Before HANCOCK, J.P., and CALLAHAN, DOERR, O'DONNELL and MOULE, JJ.

MOULE, Justice.

Defendant was convicted on three counts of second degree murder arising from the shooting deaths of three black males over a 26-hour period in September 1980 on the east side of Buffalo. Defendant raises several contentions on appeal in support of his claim that his convictions must be reversed. An analysis of these contentions requires a recitation of the facts surrounding these homicides and the extensive pre-trial proceedings which were conducted.

I

Glenn Dunn, a 14-year-old black male, was shot in the side of the head with a .22 caliber gun while he waited in a car outside a Tops Supermarket at the corner of Genesee and Floss Streets for a friend who had gone into the store. The shooting occurred at approximately 10:00 P.M. on September 22, 1980. Robert Oddo left his home at 9:30 P.M. that same evening and walked to the Tops market to buy cigarettes. Oddo saw a white male, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, sitting near the store and passed within arms reach of him upon entering the store. Oddo noticed a brown shopping bag sitting at the man's feet. Oddo spent about five minutes in the store and, upon leaving, observed the man he had seen earlier standing by a car at the rear of the parking lot. Oddo witnessed the man fire four shots into the car. When he was finished shooting, the assailant turned around and Oddo could again see his face before the man fled. Oddo later described the man he had seen as being in his twenties, having wavy, light-brown hair and wearing silver, metal frame glasses. Police later recovered three shell casings and bullet fragments from the scene of the crime.

At approximately 12:20 P.M. on September 23, 1980 Harold Green, a 32-year-old black male, was shot and killed by two gunshots to the head from a .22 caliber weapon. At the time Green was seated in his car in the parking lot of a Burger King Restaurant on Union Road in Cheektowaga. Linda Snyder had gone to the same restaurant for lunch at approximately 12:05 P.M. and was walking out of the restaurant when the shooting occurred. As she approached her car, she saw a man running behind the car next to hers. The man ran to a restaurant adjacent to the Burger King and disappeared behind a corner of it. Snyder described the man as being about 5'7"' or 5'8"' tall and weighing approximately 150 pounds. She stated that he was wearing a waist-length, khaki-colored jacket, khaki trousers and a khaki-colored hat with a brim all the way around. She thought he was a younger man because of the way he ran; she also noticed that he was holding a crumpled brown grocery bag under his arms. Police recovered one shell casing and bullet fragments at the scene.

Later that same day, at approximately 11:30 P.M., Emanuel Thomas, a 30-year-old black male, was killed by a single shot to the head from a .22 caliber weapon. Thomas was shot as he walked with a friend down Zenner Street by an assailant, described only as a white 18 to 19-year-old male. The assailant was observed wearing a watch cap. Police recovered three shell casings and bullet fragments at the scene.

An extensive investigation ultimately led police to suspect defendant Joseph Christopher, a United States Army private stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia. Christopher had been imprisoned in the Fort Benning stockade in January 1981 for attacking a black male soldier and was awaiting trial on the charge of assault with intent to kill. While he was awaiting trial on that charge, defendant began to fast for fear the food he was being served was poisoned. Defendant lost between 25 and 30 pounds and was subsequently transferred to the psychiatric unit (the "B-4 ward") at the base hospital. Defendant was released from the hospital and returned to the stockade in early April but was readmitted to the psychiatric unit after he had cut himself with a razor blade.

Captain Bernard Burgess, a staff nurse on the B-4 ward, conducted an intake interview of defendant for readmission to the unit on April 10, 1981. During this standard question and answer session, defendant asked Burgess if he was aware of the killings in Buffalo. When Burgess replied that he was not, defendant told him that he had killed 13 people, some with a .22 caliber gun. ¹ When Burgess asked why he had killed the people, defendant said he had done it because of an uncontrollable impulse. Defendant told Burgess that he intended to notify law enforcement officials of his involvement in the killings. Defendant made similar admissions to Specialist Christopher Corwin, ² an MP assigned to guard defendant while he was at the psychiatric unit, and Lieutenant Dorothy Anderson, a psychiatric nurse on the B-4 ward. Defendant approached Anderson on April 13, 1981 after a group therapy session and told her that he had something he wanted to tell her about the commission of a crime. Anderson asked defendant if he had committed a crime and defendant responded that he had murdered some people, but did not remember how many. In response to Anderson's further inquiries, defendant stated that all of the victims were nonwhite males and that all of the killings had occurred between September 1980 and January 1981.

On April 24, 1981 defendant asked to speak with Captain Aldrich Johnson, the officer in charge of the Fort Benning stockade. At this time Johnson was aware that defendant, principally as a result of the statements he had made to Captain Burgess, Specialist Corwin and Lieutenant Anderson and his physical resemblance to the composite description police had put together, had become a suspect in the Buffalo killings. The two men engaged in a lengthy conversation in Johnson's office covering many topics. Johnson, who knew that defendant had told others at Fort Benning of his involvement in the Buffalo killings, sought to gain defendant's confidence so that defendant would speak freely with him; Johnson did, however, advise defendant that he would report anything defendant told him to his superiors. Nonetheless, defendant refused to say anything about the killings. At one point a female friend of Johnson's stopped by and pointedly asked defendant if he had committed the crimes in Buffalo; defendant's response was that "people say I did".

Johnson and defendant spoke again on both April 25th and 26th during routine checks of the stockade facility made by Johnson. Both of these conversations were initiated by defendant. On April 25th defendant made a dietary request to Johnson and also asked if he could speak to the chaplain. On April 26th defendant asked to speak with Johnson to ask permission to have a musical instrument in the stockade. When Johnson approached defendant's cell, defendant told him he had done "the thing" in Buffalo. Johnson then asked defendant if he wanted to speak with the detectives from Buffalo, but he declined. This last conversation was overheard by Correction Specialist Richard Morganstern.

Warrants to search defendant's home at 89 Weber Street in the City of Buffalo, a shed adjacent to the home and a family hunting camp in Ellington, New York were sought by Buffalo police on April 22, 1981, based principally upon the following grounds: defendant's admissions; his physical resemblance to the composite drawing of the assailant; the fact that defendant was known to previously have possessed a Ruger 10/.22 gun, the type of gun ballistics experts believed was used in the Dunn, Green and Thomas homicides, and various hunting knives; ³ and defendant's unprovoked attack on a black male soldier. The warrants were issued and authorized police to seize defendant's Ruger 10/.22, .22 caliber ammunition, .22 caliber expended casings, and various types of hats, knives and jackets. The searches were conducted the next day; police seized various .22 caliber ammunition, several knives, a green army-style rain jacket, a leather brim hat, a black knitted watch cap, and three spent .22 caliber casings, one of which was bent.

Defendant was indicted for the murders of Dunn, Green and Thomas on April 29, 1981. ⁴ A line-up was subsequently held on May 12, 1981. While Robert Oddo did not identify defendant at the line-up as the man he saw shoot Glenn Dunn, he later told an officer who had previously questioned him that he could make an identification. Oddo then identified defendant as the man he had seen shoot Glenn Dunn. He explained that he had initially chosen not to make a positive identification so as to avoid "getting involved".

II

Defendant was arraigned on May 11, 1981 and an order directing the examination of defendant pursuant to CPL Article 730 was granted at that time. Defendant was then examined by two psychiatrists, Drs. Molnar and Wadsworth, and found fit to proceed.

Defense counsel thereafter moved for the suppression of the following: defendant's statements to military personnel at Fort Benning; the eyewitness identification of defendant by Oddo and the other people who had identified him as being at Tops on the night of the Dunn killing; and the evidence police had obtained in searching defendant's house, the shed attached to the house and the family hunting camp. After lengthy oral argument on these matters, the hearing court ruled on defendant's motions. It held that the line-ups were not suggestively conducted and, hence, the eyewitness identifications should not be suppressed. Further, it found that the search warrants issued in this case were supported by sufficient probable cause and, additionally, that the articles seized by police were within the...