People v. McCray

• Decision Date: 17 January 2013
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Terence McCRAY, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

102 A.D.3d 1000

958 N.Y.S.2d 511

2013 N.Y. Slip Op. 00236

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,

v.Terence McCRAY, Appellant.

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

Jan. 17, 2013.

Paul J. Connolly, Delmar, for appellant, and appellant pro se.

P. David Soares, District Attorney, Albany (Steven M. Sharp of counsel), for respondent.

Before: Mercure, J.P., Spain, Stein, McCarthy and Garry, JJ.

Spain, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Albany County (Breslin, J.), rendered September 1, 2010, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of rape in the first degree.

This case, which began with a consensual relationship and ended in defendant's indictment on a single count of rape in the first degree ( seePenal Law § 130.35[1] ), presents a classic he-said she-said credibility determination. After a jury trial, defendant was convicted and sentenced as a second felony offender to a prison term of 22 years and five years of postrelease supervision. Defendant appeals and we now affirm.

We turn first to defendant's argument that the verdict was against the weight of the credible evidence, necessitating a full review of the testimony adduced at trial. Many details are undisputed. Defendant, then 40 years old, first met the victim—an 18–year–old woman with an extensive history of psychiatric problems—at a bus stop in the City of Albany in April 2009. They talked extensively about various topics, including sex, while walking together until they eventually visited a recreational vehicle that belonged to a friend of defendant. The victim testified that, while inside the vehicle, defendant gave the victim a back massage, but nothing else happened of an intimate nature. Defendant's version of these events differed only in that he testified that, following the massage, the victim engaged in oral sex with him. Upon parting that night, the victim gave defendant her telephone number and they spoke on the telephone a few times in the weeks ahead. On May 26, 2009, defendant called the victim and invited her out for the evening. The victim's mother drove her to defendant's residence, where the victim met members of defendant's family, and she then dropped the pair off on Lark Street. They walked around for a while and stopped at the home of defendant's friend, Marvin Calhoun, where they visited with Calhoun and his family. The victim admits that she exchanged sexual innuendos with defendant during this visit. After a few hours, the couple left, ending up at the apartment of another one of defendant's friends, Kevin Johnson, where they engaged in consensual kissing and fondling.

It is at this point that the testimony of defendant and the victim sharply diverges. The victim testified that after about 15 minutes, defendant wanted to have intercourse but she refused, telling him it was too soon in their relationship. When defendant continued to insist, she became angry with him and left the apartment. Defendant caught up with her on a street outside the apartment and apologized to her. She stated that they continued to argue while they walked, but that she tired of walking so they sat down. The victim stated that, while seated, they witnessed police officers draw their weapons on a young female with a baseball bat. She explained that this incident made both her and defendant laugh, and she no longer felt angry with him.

Defendant testified that the victim had unsuccessfully asked Calhoun if they could use a bedroom to have sex while visiting Calhoun's family and, once at Johnson's apartment, she initiated sex and it was he who refused to have intercourse there because he thought it was not appropriate to have sex on the couch with his friend in the next room. He testified that they left the apartment together in search of another place to have sex, and that the victim was willing even to have sex outside in the bushes. Defendant further stated that the victim was not angry with him when they left Johnson's apartment and that they never witnessed the police encounter with the female with the baseball bat.

By both accounts, the couple eventually ended up at an abandoned house located at 595 Clinton Avenue in Albany, where the victim followed defendant through the backyard into the house. At this point, the accounts of the victim and defendant again diverge. The victim testified that defendant backed her up against a wall and started to forcibly kiss and grind against her. She testified that she pushed him away and told him to stop, but that he continued, telling her, “You are going to give it to me or I'm going to take it.” The victim stated that they struggled; she punched defendant in the face, near his jaw or chin, and defendant hit her in the face several times and choked her. While he was choking her from behind, the victim testified, she was able to bite his forearm. After an extended struggle, during which the victim tried to make noise to draw attention and begged for her life, she gave up and submitted to sexual intercourse with defendant. The victim stated that, when it was over, defendant did not prevent her from leaving, but told her, “Don't go out there looking like that.” The victim stated that she wiped the tears and blood off of her face onto her shirt, then went out the same way they had entered. She further testified that she got caught on a fence while trying to leave, and ripped her shirt. She came upon a pay telephone and called 911. Police officers arrived and she was brought to the hospital for examination. The victim's torn shirt and photographs of her bruised face were admitted in evidence at trial.

By contrast, defendant testified that the couple had consensual intercourse once inside the abandoned building. He explained that after they were through and he asked the victim if she wanted to go home, she suddenly demanded money from him and, when he refused, grabbed his pants and began to leave. Defendant stated that he then tackled the victim to prevent her from leaving and her face struck the floor as they fell. They then struggled as he attempted to pry his money—which the victim had by then extracted from the pocket of his pants—from her hand and, during the struggle, she bit his arm. According to defendant, he eventually managed to squeeze the victim's hand open and retrieve his cash, at which point the victim got up and left the building.

Defendant then went to the home of his friend, James Close, where, according to Close, he pounded on the door, yelling for admittance. Close testified that defendant looked like he was being chased by someone and implied that he wanted to come inside because there was a female outside who was exposing herself to defendant. Defendant testified that he went to Close's house because he wanted to tell him about his encounter with the victim but, suddenly realizing that the abandoned house he had been trespassing in might belong to Close, changed his mind and left. He explained that he might have referred to the victim as “the girl [who] lifted her shirt up on Central Avenue that time” because he had told Close about his first meeting with the victim and that she had exposed herself on the street that night to some passers-by.

Based on this evidence, it would not have been unreasonable for the jury to believe defendant's testimony that the sexual encounter was consensual. ¹ Thus, to determine if the verdict was against the weight of the evidence, we “ ‘must, like the trier of fact below, weigh the relative probative force of conflicting testimony and the relative strength of conflicting inferences that may be drawn from the testimony’ ” ( People v. Terry, 85 A.D.3d 1485, 1486, 926 N.Y.S.2d 216 [2011],lv. denied17 N.Y.3d 862, 932 N.Y.S.2d 27, 956 N.E.2d 808 [2011], quoting People v. Romero, 7 N.Y.3d 633, 643, 826 N.Y.S.2d 163, 859 N.E.2d 902 [2006] ), while giving due deference to the credibility determinations of the jury ( see People v. Wright, 81 A.D.3d 1161, 1163, 918 N.Y.S.2d 598 [2011],lv. denied17 N.Y.3d 803, 929 N.Y.S.2d 112, 952 N.E.2d 1107 [2011] ). Defendant, both in counsel's brief and in his pro se submission, relies on inconsistencies in the victim's testimony, her mental health history and his interpretation of the physical evidence and testimony adduced at trial to argue that the verdict is against the weight of the credible evidence.Examining all his arguments and the proof adduced at trial, we find no legal basis for substituting a different conclusion from that reached by the jury.

Defendant focuses on the fact that a hospital record states that the victim reported to medical personnel that the attack lasted three minutes, while she testified that they struggled for 30 to 45 minutes. A review of that record, however, suggests that the time reported may refer to the duration of the rape, as opposed to the entire struggle. Further, defendant emphasizes the fact that, according to a hospital record, the victim first reported that there was some consensual kissing at the abandoned house, but thereafter testified that the kissing was also against her will. We do not find this inconsistency to be evidence that the victim's testimony is fundamentally unreliable; she was cross-examined on this at trial, thus putting the credibility determination squarely in front of the jury. Faced with inconsistencies, “the jury ‘was entitled to credit some of her testimony while discounting other aspects' ” ( People v. Hoppe, 96 A.D.3d 1157, 1159, 946 N.Y.S.2d 671 [2012],lv. denied19 N.Y.3d 1026, 953 N.Y.S.2d 559, 978 N.E.2d 111 [2012], quoting People v. Kuykendall, 43 A.D.3d 493, 495, 840 N.Y.S.2d 472 [2007],lv. denied9 N.Y.3d 1007, 850 N.Y.S.2d 395, 880 N.E.2d 881 [2007];see People v. Alteri, 49 A.D.3d 918, 920, 853 N.Y.S.2d 204 [2008] ). Likewise, defendant's assertion on appeal—that the victim's testimony that they witnessed police officers draw their weapons on a female carrying a baseball bat was...