People v. Douglas

• Decision Date: 08 December 2021
• Docket Number: 2018-08613,Ind. No. 608/17
• Citation: 200 A.D.3d 795,157 N.Y.S.3d 539
• Parties: The PEOPLE, etc., respondent, v. Saheim DOUGLAS, appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

200 A.D.3d 795

157 N.Y.S.3d 539

The PEOPLE, etc., respondent,

v.Saheim DOUGLAS, appellant.

2018-08613

Ind. No. 608/17

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Argued—November 17, 2020

December 8, 2021

Thomas A. Kenniff, Mineola, NY, for appellant.

Joyce A. Smith, Acting District Attorney, Mineola, NY (Judith R. Sternberg and Madeline Collins of counsel), for respondent.

WILLIAM F. MASTRO, J.P., LEONARD B. AUSTIN, ROBERT J. MILLER, FRANCESCA E. CONNOLLY, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Angelo A. Delligatti, J.), rendered June 13, 2018, convicting him of attempted murder in the second degree, criminal use of a firearm in the first degree, attempted assault in the first degree, criminal use of a firearm in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (two counts), reckless endangerment in the first degree, assault in the second degree, assault in the third degree, and resisting arrest, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

On September 25, 2016, shortly after midnight, two men, with another man present, engaged in a shootout at the intersection of Terrace Avenue and Bedell Street, in Hempstead. An innocent bystander was injured when bullets struck her car, shattering its windshield.

ShotSpotter, an acoustic gunshot detection and location system, provided notification to law enforcement agencies that shots had been fired at the subject intersection. Video surveillance footage obtained from buildings located in the vicinity of the crime scene depicted two men standing on the southeast corner of the subject intersection, and a third man, later identified as Darren Devane, standing on the northwest corner. The videos, among other things, showed one of the men who was standing on the southeast corner fire an AK–47 assault rifle across the subject intersection before fleeing the scene. After arriving at the scene, Nassau County Police Department personnel recovered from the southeast corner a piece of a black plastic magazine and spent and unspent ammunition. Subsequently, through DNA testing, blood belonging to the defendant was identified on two of the recovered AK–47 cartridges.

During the evening following the shooting, the defendant sought treatment at Jamaica Hospital, in Queens, for a gunshot wound to his left hand. Due to the fact that the defendant had been shot, hospital personnel contacted the New York City Police Department (hereinafter NYPD). At the hospital, the defendant provided an NYPD detective with two different locations in Queens for where the shooting that caused his injuries took place. NYPD personnel investigated those locations, and discovered that ShotSpotter had not detected any shots fired at either location during the time frame for the shooting provided by the defendant. No calls to the 911 emergency number had been received indicating that a shooting occurred in either location, and canvassing of the two locations did not produce any witnesses or video surveillance demonstrating that a shooting had occurred. Since it did not appear that the shooting which caused the defendant to be injured occurred in Queens, as reported by the defendant, the NYPD contacted other law enforcement agencies, including the Nassau County Police Department, to report that a gunshot victim had been treated at Jamaica Hospital.

Further, after the defendant, who did not produce identification upon request, provided a fake name, birth date, and address to the responding officers, one of the NYPD officers took a photograph of the defendant to forward to the facial recognition unit. Subsequent to the defendant's discharge from Jamaica Hospital, the facial recognition unit identified the patient as the defendant. This information was also relayed to the Nassau County Police Department.

In March 2017, the defendant was arrested and subsequently indicted for, inter alia, attempted murder in the second degree and criminal use of a firearm in the first degree. Upon his arrest, the defendant made certain statements to the police, including that the Nassau County Police Department "got [him] good," and that he never should have gone to Hempstead but would "only do two or three years." The jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty of the charged crimes. The defendant appeals.

In fulfilling our responsibility to conduct an independent review of the weight of the evidence (see CPL 470.15[5] ; People v. Danielson, 9 N.Y.3d 342, 849 N.Y.S.2d 480, 880 N.E.2d 1 ), we nevertheless accord great deference to the jury's opportunity to view the witnesses, hear the testimony, and observe demeanor (see People v. Mateo, 2 N.Y.3d 383, 410, 779 N.Y.S.2d 399, 811 N.E.2d 1053 ; People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495, 515 N.Y.S.2d 761, 508 N.E.2d 672 ). Upon reviewing the record here, we are satisfied that the verdict of guilt was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v. Romero, 7 N.Y.3d 633, 645–646, 826 N.Y.S.2d 163, 859 N.E.2d 902 ).

The defendant's contentions that the act of a Nassau County Police Department detective powering on the defendant's cell phone and calling it using the phone number the defendant had provided to the NYPD at Jamaica Hospital constituted an unlawful, warrantless search and that the Supreme Court improperly pressured the jury to reach a...