People v. Cruz
| Decision Date | 29 January 1987 |
| Citation | 126 A.D.2d 495,511 N.Y.S.2d 19 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Perfecto CRUZ, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
K. Lubin, B. Manning, New York City, for respondent.
J.B. Philby, New York City, for defendant-appellant.
Before MURPHY, P.J., and CARRO, ASCH, MILONAS and ROSENBERGER, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Dennis Edwards, Jr., J.) rendered August 16, 1983, after a jury trial, which convicted defendant of manslaughter in the first degree and sentenced him as an armed violent felony offender to an indeterminate term of imprisonment of ten to twenty years, reversed, on the law, the sentence vacated and the indictment dismissed and the matter remanded to Trial Term for the purpose of issuing a securing order pursuant to CPL 210.45(9) and defendant committed to the custody of the Department of Correction pending the issuance of such order with leave to the District Attorney to re-present the charges of manslaughter in the first and second degree to another Grand Jury.
The defendant was indicted, charged with murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and criminal use of a firearm in the first degree, in that on July 17, 1982, he intentionally caused the death of one Victor Ortega by shooting him with a loaded pistol. The defendant testified, as the sole witness on his own behalf, that the victim assaulted him with a gun and that the gun "went off" while they struggled for it. The trial court refused defendant's request to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of manslaughter in the second degree. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the murder charge and found the defendant guilty of manslaughter in the first degree. Defendant is presently incarcerated, serving a sentence of ten to twenty years imprisonment.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to defendant, as we must in determining whether, under a reasonable view of the evidence, the jury could find that defendant committed the lesser offense but not the greater, (People v. Martin, 59 N.Y.2d 704, 463 N.Y.S.2d 419, 450 N.E.2d 225 [1983] ), we conclude that defendant was entitled to have the jury charged on manslaughter in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.15) as a lesser included offense. Defendant's testimony, if believed by the jury, would have supported a conviction for manslaughter in the second degree. As the Court of Appeals...
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