People v. Edmondson

• Decision Date: 06 March 2001
• Citation: 721 N.Y.S.2d 522
• Parties: (A.D. 1 Dept. 2001) The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Eric Edmondson, Defendant-Appellant. 3438
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 522

721 N.Y.S.2d 522 (A.D. 1 Dept. 2001)

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Eric Edmondson, Defendant-Appellant.

3438

SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT

March 6, 2001

Susan Axelrod, for respondent,

Howard R. Birnbach, for defendant-appellant.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (William Wetzel, J.), rendered May 4, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of 2 years and 1 year, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. The People established, through eyewitness testimony, that defendant cut the victim's forehead with a box cutter. There is no basis upon which to disturb the jury's determinations concerning credibility.

The court properly exercised its discretion in permitting the victim's treating doctor, a first-year resident in emergency medicine with 10-months experience in that field, to also testify as an expert on that subject (see, People v Rogers, 163 A.D.2d 157, lv denied 76 N.Y.2d 943; see also, Price v New York City Hous. Auth., 92 N.Y.2d 553, 559).

The court properly permitted the People to introduce evidence which rebutted defendant's claim that the victim's injury resulted from blunt trauma rather than from a sharp instrument (see, People v Harris, 57 N.Y.2d 335, 345, cert denied 460 U.S. 1047). To the extent this evidence could have been introduced on the People's direct case, the court properly exercised its discretion in permitting it to be introduced in rebuttal (see CPL 260.30[7]; People v Brown, 240 A.D.2d 281, lv denied 91 N.Y.2d 870).

Rosenberger, J.P., Mazzarelli, Ellerin, Wallach, Buckley, JJ., concur.