People v. Dorsey

• Decision Date: 08 January 2004
• Docket Number: 12325.
• Citation: 770 N.Y.S.2d 462,2004 NY Slip Op 00031,3 A.D.3d 590
• Parties: THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. CRAIG DORSEY, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

3 A.D.3d 590

770 N.Y.S.2d 462

2004 NY Slip Op 00031

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. CRAIG DORSEY, Appellant.

12325.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Third Department.

January 8, 2004.

Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Lamont, J.), rendered June 23, 2000 in Albany County, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of murder in the second degree.

SPAIN, J.

Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of intentional second degree murder for the late-night shooting death of Cariga Crawley in the City of Albany on September 15, 1999. The trial evidence included defendant's detailed signed confession, as well as the testimony of his accomplice and eyewitnesses to the chain of events culminating in this shooting. The proof established that following a heated argument with the victim in the days prior to the shooting, defendant purchased a gun. On the day of the shooting, defendant was riding as a passenger in a vehicle driven by his codefendant searching for Crawley; they waited for a time outside Crawley's house and then drove away; when they spotted the victim's parked motorcycle, they waited and, when the victim drove away on the motorcycle, defendant directed his codefendant to follow the motorcycle. When it stopped, defendant and the victim exchanged words and then defendant admittedly shot the victim four times, asserting in his confession that the victim's threatening gestures toward him had scared him.

Upon his conviction, Supreme Court sentenced defendant to a prison term of 25 years to life, to be served consecutively to sentences imposed upon prior convictions. Defendant appeals. Finding no merit to defendant's contentions that the court's denial of his Batson motion was error, the verdict was unsupported, his mistrial motion was improperly denied, he received ineffective assistance of counsel and the sentence should be reduced, we affirm.

With regard to defendant's Batson challenge directed at the exclusion of one African American juror on the basis of race, no error is discernible in Supreme Court's determination rejecting this challenge. After an appropriate inquiry and careful analysis, the court ascertained that while a pattern of discrimination was arguably established at that juncture, the People's explanation—that the juror's answers reflected potential bias against correction officers and sympathy toward inmates stemming from her experiences with and ill will toward her ex-husband, a correction officer—was race-neutral and not shown to be pretextual (see People v Smocum, 99 NY2d 418, 421-422 [2003]; People v Williams, 306 AD2d 691, 691-692 [2003]).

Turning to the jury's verdict, a review of the trial testimony and evidence in the light most favorable to the People demonstrates legally sufficient evidence to support the jury's conclusion (see People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495 [1987]; People v Contes, 60 NY2d 620, 621 [1983]). Defendant's own confession, combined with the testimony of several other witnesses including the codefendant, supported the conclusion that defendant, armed with a gun, bullets and latex gloves, pursued the victim and repeatedly shot him at close range intending to cause his death, motivated by their recent argument. Further, viewing the evidence in a neutral light and deferring to the jurors' ability to assess the witnesses' credibility, we find that the verdict was supported by the weight of credible evidence and, in fact, a different finding would have been unreasonable (see People v Bleakley, supra). Despite some inconsistencies, the testimony of the codefendant, who accepted a guilty plea to a reduced charge in exchange for his testimony, was more than adequately corroborated by defendant's own statement to police and the testimony of other witnesses who observed either the shooting or defenda...