People v. Harrison

• Decision Date: 14 June 2018
• Docket Number: 107309
• Citation: 162 A.D.3d 1207,78 N.Y.S.3d 799
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Donnell HARRISON, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

162 A.D.3d 1207

78 N.Y.S.3d 799

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,

v.Donnell HARRISON, Appellant.

107309

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

Calendar Date: April 30, 2018

Decided and Entered: June 14, 2018

Salvatore C. Adamo, Albany, for appellant.

Matthew VanHouten, District Attorney, Ithaca (Andrew J. Bonavia of counsel), for respondent.

Before: McCarthy, J.P., Lynch, Devine, Clark and Pritzker, JJ.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Devine, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Tompkins County(Cassidy, J.), rendered July 16, 2014, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

Defendant was charged in an indictment with various offenses after he allegedly shot two men, Matthew Dewey and Cory Heffron, in the belief that they had stolen from him.Following a jury trial, he was convicted of assault in the first degree pertaining to Dewey and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.County Court sentenced defendant, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate prison term of 16 years to be followed by postrelease supervision of five years.He appeals, and we now affirm.

Defendant's challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence is unpreserved "inasmuch as his counsel made only a general motion to dismiss at the close of the People's case-in-chief"( People v. Hahn,159 A.D.3d 1062, 1063, 71 N.Y.S.3d 731[2018];seePeople v. Rosario,157 A.D.3d 988, 989, 69 N.Y.S.3d 149[2018] ).We will nevertheless evaluate, within the context of our weight of the evidence review, whether the elements of the offenses were proven beyond a reasonable doubt (seePeople v. Kancharla,23 N.Y.3d 294, 303, 991 N.Y.S.2d 1, 14 N.E.3d 354[2014];People v. Danielson,9 N.Y.3d 342, 349, 849 N.Y.S.2d 480, 880 N.E.2d 1[2007];People v. Hahn,159 A.D.3d at 1063, 71 N.Y.S.3d 731 ).

In that regard, defendant reported that someone had stolen money from his residence, and a deputy sheriff testified that he responded to that call and spoke with defendant on April 24, 2013.Defendant shot Dewey and Heffron six days later.The two men gave consistent testimony in which they described their transactional relationship with defendant in the months leading up to the shooting, purchasing marihuana from him or exchanging it for automotive repairs they performed at his residence.Defendant arrived at their residence on the afternoon of April 30, 2013 and was invited in by Dewey to look at some electronic equipment they had for sale.¹The equipment was in Dewey's bedroom, as was Heffron.Defendant entered the bedroom with Dewey, at which point he accused Dewey and Heffron of stealing marihuana and money from his residence and demanded to know "where his stuff was."Dewey and Heffron denied having stolen from defendant and continued to do so after he produced a pistol and demanded answers at gunpoint, prompting defendant to shoot them both.The first degree assault count was related to Dewey, who was shot in the head and sustained injuries that included a shattered jaw and permanent deafness in his left ear.Investigators recovered two expended shells from the residence.

The foregoing proof was sufficient to permit the finding that defendant possessed a loaded firearm with unlawful intent, aiming to inflict serious physical injury and succeeding with regard to Dewey (seePenal Law §§ 120.10[1];265.03[1][b];People v. Mathews,134 A.D.3d 1248, 1250, 21 N.Y.S.3d 465[2015];People v. Heyliger,126 A.D.3d 1117, 1118–1119, 5 N.Y.S.3d 566[2015], lv denied25 N.Y.3d 1165, 15 N.Y.S.3d 297, 36 N.E.3d 100[2015] ).Assuming for the sake of argument that acquittal was a reasonable possibility so as to warrant a weight of the evidence analysis (seePeople v. Danielson,9 N.Y.3d at 348, 849 N.Y.S.2d 480, 880 N.E.2d 1 ), the jury credited the descriptions of the gunplay provided by Dewey and Heffron despite defendant's efforts to undermine the pair's testimony.Deferring to that credibility assessment, we cannot say that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence (seePeople v. Mathews,134 A.D.3d at 1249–1250, 21 N.Y.S.3d 465;People v. Lanier,130 A.D.3d 1310, 1311, 15 N.Y.S.3d 241[2015], lv denied26 N.Y.3d 1009, 20 N.Y.S.3d 550, 42 N.E.3d 220[2015] ).

Defendant further challenges several of the pretrial rulings, the first of which rejected his motion to dismiss the indictment upon the ground that the People did not give notice of the pending grand jury proceedings so as to afford him "a reasonable time to exercise his right to appear as a witness" there ( CPL 190.50[5][a] ).The People responded by averring that the felony complaint against defendant was disposed of in a local criminal court following a preliminary hearing, and the matter held over for the action of a grand jury.Accordingly, as the felony complaint was disposed of with "defendant[being] held for grand jury action[,] ... he was no longer subject to an ‘undisposed of felony complaint’ in a local criminal court so as to entitle him to notice of grand jury proceedings under CPL 190.50(5)(a)"( People v. Carlton,120 A.D.3d 1443, 1444, 991 N.Y.S.2d 806[2014], lv denied25 N.Y.3d 1070, 12 N.Y.S.3d 621, 34 N.E.3d 372[2015];seePeople v. Boodrow,42 A.D.3d 582, 584, 841 N.Y.S.2d 384[2007];People v. Hodges,246 A.D.2d 824, 825, 667 N.Y.S.2d 812[1998] ).County Court(Rossiter, J.) properly rejected defendant's motion on this basis.

Turning to defendant's application to suppress various evidence, investigators deployed photo arrays to obtain pretrial identifications of defendant from Dewey and Heffron.The suppression hearing included testimony from those investigators to the effect that Dewey and Heffron were both lucid despite their injuries and that proper identification procedures were employed, thereby "satisf[ying][the People's] initial burden to establish that the police conduct was reasonable and that their procedure was not unduly suggestive"( People v. Quintana,159 A.D.3d 1122, 1127, 71 N.Y.S.3d 752[2018];seePeople v. Chipp,75 N.Y.2d 327, 335–336, 553 N.Y.S.2d 72, 552 N.E.2d 608[1990], cert denied498 U.S. 833, 111 S.Ct. 99, 112 L.Ed.2d 70[1990] ).Moreover, after reviewing the photo array used by both officers, "we find no merit in defendant's claim that the identification was unduly suggestive"( People v. Smith,157 A.D.3d 978, 979, 69 N.Y.S.3d 401[2018] ).County Court(Cassidy, J.) was accordingly right to refuse to suppress the identifications.

Defendant also sought to suppress statements made in the course of his interview with an investigator, conducted while he was jailed and awaiting trial on the present offenses, including his belief that Dewey and Heffron were the people who had burgled his residence a week before the shooting.The People did not dispute that defendant was in custody at the time of the interview, was not administered Miranda warnings and did not have counsel present.The People instead argued that the statements were admissible as spontaneously made outside of the context of custodial interrogation, which depends upon whether they were "the product of ‘express questioning or its functional equivalent’ "( People v. Bryant,59 N.Y.2d 786, 788, 464 N.Y.S.2d 729, 451 N.E.2d 476[1983], quotingRhode Island v. Innis,446 U.S. 291, 300–301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 64 L.Ed.2d 297[1980];accordPeople v. George,127 A.D.3d 1496, 1497, 7 N.Y.S.3d 692[2015] ).The interview resulted from defendant's repeated requests to speak to an investigator regarding his April 24, 2013 report of having been the victim of a burglary.The investigator did not raise the issue of the shooting during the interview, but defendant made the damaging admission in response to the investigator asking if he had any suspects in mind regarding the burglary.The investigator testified that he did not, at that point, believe there was any connection between the reported burglary and the later shooting for which defendant had been charged.

County Court accepted that the investigator believed the burglary "to be a separate incident altogether" from the shooting, and we"[a]ccord[ ] deference to [the] suppression court's factual findings and credibility determinations"( People v. Vandebogart,158 A.D.3d 976, 978, 71 N.Y.S.3d 698[2018] ).²That being said, the investigator admitted that he had supervised the investigation into the shooting and knew, at the time of the interview, that it was drug related, circumstances leaving no doubt that he"should have known " when he posed the question regarding who defendant suspected to be the thieves that he"was ‘reasonably likely to evoke an incriminating response’ "( People v. Huffman,61 N.Y.2d 795, 797, 473 N.Y.S.2d 945, 462 N.E.2d 122[1984][emphasis added], quotingRhode Island v. Innis,446 U.S. at 301, 100 S.Ct. 1682;seePeople v. Van Patten,48 A.D.3d 30, 34, 850 N.Y.S.2d 213[2007], lv denied10 N.Y.3d 845, 859 N.Y.S.2d 404, 889 N.E.2d 91[2008];People v. Ackerman,162 A.D.2d 793, 794, 558 N.Y.S.2d 216[1990];comparePeople v. Anderson,94 A.D.3d 1010, 1011, 942 N.Y.S.2d 561[2012], lv denied19 N.Y.3d 956, 950 N.Y.S.2d 108, 973 N.E.2d 206[2012];People v. Igneri,152 A.D.2d 638, 639, 543 N.Y.S.2d 169[1989], lvs denied74 N.Y.2d 897, 899, 900, 548 N.Y.S.2d 430, 432, 433, 547 N.E.2d 957, 959, 960[1989] ).As such, defendant's naming of Dewey and Heffron was the product of custodial interrogation and should have been suppressed.Nevertheless, in light of the trial evidence establishing that defendant believed someone had stolen from him and the testimony of Dewey and Heffron identifying this grievance as what motivated defendant to shoot them, there is no reasonable possibility that the outcome of the trial was affected by this statement's erroneous admission (seePeople v. Adams,53 N.Y.2d 241, 252, 440 N.Y.S.2d 902, 423 N.E.2d 379[1981];cf.People v....