People v. Hogue

• Decision Date: 28 November 2018
• Docket Number: 2016-00570,Ind. No. 3848/14
• Parties: The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. William HOGUE, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

166 A.D.3d 1009

88 N.Y.S.3d 465

The PEOPLE, etc., Respondent,

v.William HOGUE, Appellant.

2016-00570

Ind. No. 3848/14

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

Argued—September 21, 2018

November 28, 2018

Paul Skip Laisure, New York, N.Y. (Anders Nelson of counsel), for appellant.

Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove and Jean M. Joyce of counsel), for respondent.

WILLIAM F. MASTRO, J.P., JEFFREY A. COHEN, JOSEPH J. MALTESE, LINDA CHRISTOPHER, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Cassandra M. Mullen, J.), rendered December 10, 2015, convicting him of robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant was convicted of robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, after a jury trial, arising from a robbery at gunpoint wherein the defendant stole the complainant's watch, chain, and car key before fleeing on foot to a waiting vehicle. The complainant ran after the defendant and shot at the vehicle, and a gun was fired from inside the vehicle. Police officers in the area heard the gun shots. One officer saw muzzle flashes from the passenger side of the vehicle and the officers pursued the vehicle, stopping it five blocks away. The defendant, seated in the passenger seat of the vehicle, did not immediately comply with the officers' demand that he put his hands out of the window. One of the officers testified that the defendant was "fidgeting with the middle dash [board]" before the defendant put his hands out of the window. Once both the driver and the defendant were placed under arrest, the vehicle was taken to the police station for an inventory search. The search revealed a loaded weapon hidden behind the radio panel. A subsequent search of the vehicle revealed the watch, chain, and car key that the complainant reported stolen.

After a suppression hearing, the Supreme Court, Kings County (Neil J. Firetog, J.), determined that the testimony of the officer regarding hearing gun shots, seeing muzzle flashes, pursuing the vehicle, and recovering a weapon was credible. The court ruled, inter alia, that the arrest of the defendant was based on probable cause.

At trial, the officers, the complainant, and another witness testified with respect to the incident. The defendant's grand jury testimony, along with several recordings of phone calls made by the defendant from Rikers Island Correctional Facility, were admitted into evidence. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found the defendant guilty of both counts.

The defendant's contention that he was deprived of the effective assistance of counsel because his trial counsel failed to move to reopen the suppression hearing is without merit. Counsel will not be deemed ineffective for failing to pursue an argument that has little or no chance of success (see People v. Flowers, 28 N.Y.3d 536, 46 N.Y.S.3d 497, 541, 68 N.E.3d 1228 ; People v. Brown, 13 N.Y.3d 332, 341, 890 N.Y.S.2d 415, 918 N.E.2d 927 ; People v. Ennis, 11 N.Y.3d 403, 415, 872 N.Y.S.2d 364, 900 N.E.2d 915 ; People v. Caban, 5 N.Y.3d 143, 152, 800 N.Y.S.2d 70, 833 N.E.2d 213 ). Here, the defendant did not establish that the officer's hearing testimony was inconsistent with testimony elicited from other witnesses at trial, and it is unlikely that the Supreme Court would have granted an application to reopen the suppression hearing or that, if it had done so, it would have suppressed the physical evidence as a result (see People v. Meyers, 162 A.D.3d 1074, 1075, 80 N.Y.S.3d 125 ). Accordingly, trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to make that application. Moreover, the evidence, the law, and the circumstances of the case, viewed in totality as of the time of the representation, reveal that trial counsel provided meaningful representation (see People v. Wright, 25 N.Y.3d 769, 779, 16 N.Y.S.3d 485, 37 N.E.3d 1127 ; People v. Caban, 5 N.Y.3d at 152, 800 N.Y.S.2d 70, 833 N.E.2d 213 ; People v. Berroa, 99 N.Y.2d 134, 138–139, 753 N.Y.S.2d 12, 782 N.E.2d 1148 ; People v. Baldi, 54 N.Y.2d 137, 146–147, 444 N.Y.S.2d 893, 429 N.E.2d 400 ; People v. Meyers, 162 A.D.3d at 1075, 80 N.Y.S.3d 125 ).

The defendant's contention that the Supreme Court abdicated its judicial function by allowing prospective jurors, who concluded that they could not be fair and impartial, to opt out of serving on the jury without further inquiry is unpreserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05[2] ) and, in any event, without merit ( People v. Gregory, 160 A.D.3d 894, 75 N.Y.S.3d 225 ; People v. Santos, 150 A.D.3d 1270, 1271, 52 N.Y.S.3d 885 ; People v. Cunningham, 119 A.D.3d 601, 988 N.Y.S.2d 696 ).

There is no merit to the defendant's contention that the recordings of his telephone calls from Rikers Island...