People v. Maffei

• Decision Date: 24 October 2018
• Docket Number: 2010–10184,Ind.No. 844/06
• Citation: 165 A.D.3d 1173,86 N.Y.S.3d 201
• Parties: The PEOPLE, etc., respondent, v. Robert MAFFEI, appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

165 A.D.3d 1173
86 N.Y.S.3d 201

The PEOPLE, etc., respondent,
v.
Robert MAFFEI, appellant.

2010–10184
Ind.No. 844/06

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

Argued - June 4, 2018
October 24, 2018

Paul Skip Laisure, New York, N.Y. (David P. Greenberg of counsel), for appellant, and appellant pro se.

Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove and Ann Bordley of counsel), for respondent.

JOHN M. LEVENTHAL, J.P., JEFFREY A. COHEN, HECTOR D. LASALLE, LINDA CHRISTOPHER, JJ.

DECISION & ORDER

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Robert K. Holdman, J.), rendered May

86 N.Y.S.3d 202

21, 2008, convicting him of murder in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant shot and killed the victim, who was unknown to him, while the two were riding as passengers in two separate vehicles traveling side-by-side on an entrance ramp to the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn. The evidence at trial established that the defendant was traveling as a rear passenger in a Lincoln being driven by his girlfriend (hereinafter the driver). While the Lincoln was stopped at a red light near Bay 8th Street in Brooklyn, a Subaru containing four young men, including the victim, pulled up alongside the Lincoln and then turned right towards the entrance ramp for the parkway. The occupants of the Subaru may have looked at the driver, and smiled and waved as they drove past. The defendant told the driver to follow the Subaru, and then to pull up alongside of it. The driver complied and turned right, also onto the entrance ramp for the parkway. The defendant rolled down the rear passenger window of the Lincoln and, once the vehicles were side-by-side, pointed a gun toward the rear window of the Subaru and fired. The Subaru was traveling approximately 40 miles per hour at the time and in the merging lane for the parkway. The gun discharged a single bullet into the rear driver side window of the Subaru. The bullet missed the passenger seated in the rear driver side seat, but struck the victim, who was sitting in the rear passenger seat, killing him. The defendant was convicted following a jury trial of depraved indifference murder (see Penal Law § 125.25[2] ).

The defendant's challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction is unpreserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05[1] ; People v. Kolupa , 13 N.Y.3d 786, 787, ...