People v. Hutcherson
| Decision Date | 19 January 2006 |
| Docket Number | 14223. |
| Citation | 25 A.D.3d 912,2006 NY Slip Op 00259,808 N.Y.S.2d 813 |
| Parties | THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. JULIUS L. HUTCHERSON, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Following two separate jury trials, defendant was found guilty of robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree. The robbery conviction stems from an early morning holdup of two hotel occupants at gunpoint. The drug conviction stems from evidence that defendant, upon being arrested one year later on the outstanding arrest warrant for robbery in the first degree, was in possession of crack cocaine. Defendant was sentenced as a second violent felony offender to a prison term of 25 years with five years of postrelease supervision for the robbery conviction and a consecutive term of 12½ to 25 years for the criminal possession conviction. He now appeals.
Defendant's appellate counsel argues that the robbery conviction is against the weight of the evidence. In a supplemental pro se brief, defendant additionally claims that this verdict is not based upon legally sufficient evidence. We are unpersuaded by both contentions. It was established at trial that a light-skinned, African-American man burst into the hotel room of two strangers wearing a green bandana over his face and a blue shirt, pointed a gun at them and ordered them onto the floor. Upon the perpetrator's demand for money, both victims handed over their cash. In the course of the robbery, a friend of the victims knocked at the door prompting the robber to open it, point the gun at her and order her on the floor as well. The man ultimately fled.
The police were immediately contacted. An officer patrolling in the vicinity of the hotel was responding when he observed a white vehicle, that he had earlier observed in the hotel parking lot, drive past him at a high rate of speed. As the officer followed the vehicle, it ultimately crashed into a house, its air bag deployed and its driver fled. The officer attempted to catch the driver, to no avail. The vehicle was determined to be owned by defendant.
Later that same day, defendant reported this vehicle, which he claimed contained a loaded gun, as stolen.1 The officer who responded to this report did not know that the same vehicle had been connected to the earlier robbery. Upon learning of this connection later that day and further learning that defendant fit the description of the perpetrator, the second officer attempted to locate defendant, to no avail. It was established through the testimony of defendant's live-in girlfriend that he left town at some point after reporting his vehicle stolen and would not disclose his whereabouts to her.
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