People v. Jeter

Decision Date09 July 1990
Citation163 A.D.2d 421,558 N.Y.S.2d 138
PartiesThe PEOPLE, etc., Respondent, v. Darryl JETER, Appellant.
CourtNew York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Philip L. Weinstein, New York City (Ellen L. Schutz, of counsel), for appellant.

Charles J. Hynes, Dist. Atty., Brooklyn (Jay M. Cohen, Anthea H. Bruffee, Victor Barall, and Linda Cantoni, of counsel), for respondent.

Before BRACKEN, J.P., and KOOPER, RUBIN and MILLER, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Owens, J.), rendered June 20, 1985, convicting him of murder in the second degree (two counts) and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision that the term of imprisonment imposed on the criminal possession count is to run consecutively to the terms of imprisonment imposed on the murder counts, and substituting therefor a provision that the terms of imprisonment shall run concurrently with each other; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant's conviction stems from the murder of a New York City Transit Police Officer. The defendant urges on appeal that he was denied a fair trial due to the trial court's refusal to hold a hearing regarding the admissibility of certain spectrographic voice evidence. Although we agree that a hearing should have been conducted in this regard, in view of the overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt the error was harmless (see, People v. Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230, 367 N.Y.S.2d 213, 326 N.E.2d 787). The testimony of several eyewitnesses established the defendant's involvement in the so-called "chain snatching" event which precipitated the police officer's death. The defendant was observed "hovering" over the officer's body immediately after her death. In addition, the murder weapon was subsequently discovered in the defendant's bedroom. These factors, coupled with the court's limiting instructions to the jurors that they were free to disregard any expert testimony with respect to the spectrographic voice evidence, leads us to the conclusion that any error in failing to conduct the requested hearing is harmless inasmuch as there is no significant probability that the jury would have acquitted the defendant had the error not occurred (see, People v. Crimmins, supra ).

The defendant's contention that he was deprived of effective...

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9 cases
  • People v. Velez
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • July 25, 1994
    ...N.Y.S.2d 893; People v. Jenkins, 176 A.D.2d 348, 574 N.Y.S.2d 585; People v. Nedrick, 166 A.D.2d 725, 561 N.Y.S.2d 477; People v. Jeter, 163 A.D.2d 421, 558 N.Y.S.2d 138, affd. 80 N.Y.2d 818, 587 N.Y.S.2d 583, 600 N.E.2d 214; People v. Wallace, 152 A.D.2d 713, 544 N.Y.S.2d ...
  • People v. Caccese
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • January 26, 1995
    ...combined with County Court's limiting instructions that the jury may disregard any expert's conclusions of fact (see, People v. Jeter, 163 A.D.2d 421, 558 N.Y.S.2d 138, affd. 80 N.Y.2d 818, 587 N.Y.S.2d 583, 600 N.E.2d 214), we consider the error harmless. Defendant's further objection to t......
  • People v. Nichols
    • United States
    • New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
    • May 17, 1993
    ...of a weapon in the third degree is not a lesser included offense of attempted robbery (cf., Penal Law § 70.25[2]; People v. Jeter, 163 A.D.2d 421, 558 N.Y.S.2d 138, aff'd, 80 N.Y.2d 818, 587 N.Y.S.2d 583, 600 N.E.2d We have considered the defendant's remaining contentions and find them to b......
  • People v. Jeter
    • United States
    • New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
    • June 11, 1992
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