People v. Melendez
| Decision Date | 03 June 2021 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 2018-2246,Ind. No. 1116/16,14000 |
| Citation | 147 N.Y.S.3d 581,195 A.D.3d 447 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Dajon MELENDEZ, Defendant–Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Caprice R. Jenerson, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Margaret E. Knight of counsel) and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, New York (Lois Ahn of counsel), for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Diana J. Lewis of counsel), for respondent.
Manzanet–Daniels, J.P., Kapnick, Mazzarelli, Oing, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John W. Carter, J.), rendered November 13, 2017, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of six years, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant was charged, as relevant to this appeal, with attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, and two counts of second-degree assault, based on an incident in which he stabbed another man multiple times. At defense counsel's request, the court charged the jury on justification with respect to the attempted murder and first and second-degree assault counts.
Defense counsel objected to the trial court's initial charge to the jury because, inter alia, the court had misspoken, suggesting that the justification defense was the only available defense. The court instructed the jury to disregard its previous charge and proceeded to reread the entire justification charge. The trial court stated in pertinent part, Defense counsel did not object to this charge, and when directly asked by the court if the charge sufficed, defense counsel stated that it was "fine."
On appeal, defendant challenges the court's instructions on the ground that the court failed to comply with People v. Velez, 131 A.D.3d 129, 13 N.Y.S.3d 354 (1st Dept. 2015) because it did not instruct the jury to cease deliberations on the lesser-included assault offenses if the jury acquitted defe...
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Simpson v. Bell
... ... People v. Simpson , 151 A.D.3d 762, 762, 56 N.Y.S.3d 253 (2d Dep't 2017), leave denied 30 N.Y.3d 1063, 71 N.Y.S.3d 13, 94 N.E.3d 495 (2017) ; see N.Y ... Similarly, in People v. Melendez , it held that a justification instruction that clarified that justification was an element of the relevant offenses "adequately conveyed that ... ...
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Submission to jury
...the extent that it supplemented those pattern instructions at times in its meaningful responses to the jury’s notes. People v. Melendez , 195 A.D.3d 447, 147 N.Y.S.3d 581 (1st Dept. 2021). Jury instructions on justification defense, on the whole, adequately conveyed that acquittal of a grea......
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Objections & related procedures
...he would have been acquitted if the other ruling were different). *Harmless error despite improper jury instruction. People v. Melendez , 195 A.D.3d 447, 147 N.Y.S.3d 581 (1st Dept. 2021) (trial court’s error, if any, in instructing jury on justification defense was harmless; overwhelming e......