People v. Ramsaran

• Decision Date: 14 July 2016
• Citation: 141 A.D.3d 865,35 N.Y.S.3d 549,2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 05520
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Ganesh R. RAMSARAN, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

141 A.D.3d 865

35 N.Y.S.3d 549

2016 N.Y. Slip Op. 05520

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,

v.Ganesh R. RAMSARAN, Appellant.

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

July 14, 2016.

Cheryl Coleman, Albany, for appellant.

Joseph A. McBride, District Attorney, Norwich (Michael J. Genute of counsel), for respondent.

Before: PETERS, P.J., ROSE, MULVEY and AARONS, JJ.

MULVEY, J.

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Chenango County (Revoir Jr., J.), rendered December 1, 2014, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of murder in the second degree.

On December 11, 2012, Jennifer Ramsaran (hereinafter the victim) went missing after last being seen at her home in the Village of New Berlin, Chenango County. After the victim's body was found in February 2013, it was determined that she had been killed by unnatural causes some months prior, although the exact cause of death could not be determined. Defendant, the victim's husband, was thereafter charged by indictment for her death with one count of murder in the second degree. After a jury trial, defendant was convicted as charged and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Defendant now appeals.

Initially, we find no error in County Court denying defendant's motions to dismiss the indictment. The record does not reflect, as urged by defendant, that the People injected hearsay evidence into the grand jury proceeding or engaged in intentional misconduct so as to prejudice the ultimate decision reached by the grand jury and, therefore, the extreme remedy of dismissing the indictment is not warranted (see People v. Boddie, 126 A.D.3d 1129, 1130, 6 N.Y.S.3d 165 [2015], lv. denied 26 N.Y.3d 1085, 23 N.Y.S.3d 642, 44 N.E.3d 940 [2015] ; People v. Miller, 110 A.D.3d 1150, 1150–1151, 973 N.Y.S.2d 420 [2013] ).

Next, we are unpersuaded by defendant's contention that, given the wholly circumstantial nature of the case, the verdict was not supported by legally sufficient evidence and is against the weight of the evidence. Even when a case is based upon circumstantial evidence, the legal sufficiency of the evidence is established when, “viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, there is a valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences from which a rational jury could have found the elements of the crime proved beyond a reasonable doubt” (People v. Reed, 22 N.Y.3d 530, 534, 983 N.Y.S.2d 752, 6 N.E.3d 1108 [2014] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted] ). To convict defendant of murder in the second degree, the People were required “to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant caused the victim's death after having acted with the intent to do so” (People v. Wlasiuk, 136 A.D.3d 1101, 1102, 24 N.Y.S.3d 787 [2016], lv. denied 27 N.Y.3d 1009, ––– N.Y.S.3d ––––, ––– N.E.3d –––– [2016] ; see Penal Law § 125.25 [1 ] ).

At the trial, the People elicited testimony that defendant made a missing person report to the police around 7:54 p.m. on December 11, 2012. Defendant reported that the victim had left to go on a shopping trip to the City of Syracuse, Onondaga County at approximately 10:00 a.m. that day and was supposed to return home at 5:00 p.m. According to the police officer who responded to defendant's report of a missing person, defendant was “adamant something terrible had happened” to the victim. The police officer testified that, when he asked defendant about the state of his marriage, defendant indicated that his marriage was perfect. Thomas Renz, the victim's father, testified that defendant called him on December 11, 2012 around 5:30 p.m. upset, telling him that the victim had not returned from a shopping trip and that he was going to call the police. Testimony also established that defendant called a friend around 8:00 p.m. but did not mention that the victim was missing until approximately five minutes into the phone call. The friend offered to come help look for the victim, but defendant declined the offer, saying that he “was trying to maintain a sense of normal[cy] for the kids.”

When interviewed by the police regarding the events of December 11, 2012, defendant indicated that, after returning home from taking the children to school, he started working from home on his computers. However, a computer forensic investigator who analyzed both of defendant's work computers testified that one of the computers remained idle on that day. The other computer was used until approximately 8:08 a.m. and, at approximately 8:15 a.m., a program was installed on that computer in which, after approximately one minute, the installation process became automatic and lasted until 8:24 a.m. No further computer activity was noted until 6:31 p.m.

With regard to the victim, the People presented evidence that, on the morning of her disappearance, she was playing an online game that she abruptly left around 8:15 a.m. without explanation. The victim did not respond to a subsequent message sent around 8:30 a.m. from Robert Houston, with whom the victim regularly played the online game, as to why she left the game. Houston testified that the victim had never before just left a game without explanation. According to Houston, the victim planned to go shopping later in the week, but intended to use her friend Eileen Sayles' car because her van was making strange noises. The People also presented evidence that, on the morning of the victim's disappearance, her cell phone was still connected to defendant's home Wi–Fi network at 10:57 a.m.

Defendant reported that he went for a run to the YMCA after the victim left on her shopping trip, but testimony at the trial revealed that his statements to the police were inconsistent as to the running route he took that day. Video evidence depicted defendant walking through the YMCA parking lot and entering the building around 12:41 p.m., but defendant does not appear running on any other surveillance footage from multiple businesses located along the route that he claims to have taken. Testimony established that defendant informed various people at the YMCA that the victim had gone shopping in Syracuse and that he needed to call a friend for a ride home. Defendant then called Sayles, with whom he had been having an affair and who he considered to be his “soulmate,” to pick him up. Sayles testified that, during her relationship with defendant, he wanted to have sex with her “[a]ll the time,” and that she found it unusual that he did not invite her into the house after she drove him home from the YMCA.

Testimony at trial established that defendant had requested a divorce from the victim on various occasions and that he had recently discussed with a friend the negative financial implications of a divorce. The evidence further established that the victim had an upcoming appointment with a divorce attorney. Sayles testified that defendant pressured her to divorce her husband and once wrote that he “would have done everything and anything for [them] to be together.” The People also introduced testimony and other evidence regarding defendant's relationship with the victim, his controlling behavior toward her, his intense dislike for her playing online games and his dissatisfaction with her appearance, particularly compared to Sayles. Extensive testimony and evidence was also admitted regarding defendant's obsession with sex and his requests for the victim and Sayles to send him sexually explicit photographs of themselves.

Testimony regarding defendant's unusual behavior following the victim's disappearance was also presented. Five days after the victim disappeared, defendant posted on social media that the victim's funeral would be the first funeral he would ever attend. He also made inappropriate sexual comments to a female acquaintance within days after the victim's disappearance, as well as disparaging remarks about the victim as a mother and wife. Evidence also established that defendant asked Sayles to move in with him, changed her mailing address to his without her permission, opened an email account for her using the name “Eileen Ramsaran” and made over 2,000 phone calls to Sayles from jail following his arrest.

Evidence also established that, the day after the victim disappeared, defendant located the general location of the victim's cell phone through the “Find My iPhone” application. The police searched the area but they were unable to locate the victim's cell phone. Later that afternoon, defendant searched for the cell phone and reported to the police that a ping sound led him to the location of the cell phone, which was found behind a rock in the grass of a creek bed. Testimony established that, when the police arrived to retrieve the cell phone, no ping sound could be heard. Five days after the victim disappeared, defendant asked Renz to take him for a ride and, as defendant directed Renz the route to drive, Renz noticed the victim's van in plain sight in the parking lot of an apartment complex. After dropping defendant off back home, Renz reported the discovery of the van to police.

Forensic testimony established that large blood stains in the back of the victim's van were a conclusive DNA match with the victim. Analysis on a blood stain on the sweatshirt that defendant wore on the morning that the victim disappeared concluded that defendant was the major contributor of the blood and that the victim could not be excluded as the minor contributor to that blood stain. Furthermore, a forensic expert testified that it was 1.661 quadrillion times more likely that the blood sample from the sweatshirt contained a combination of defendant's and the victim's blood than if two randomly selected individuals were the donors. With regard to the victim's body, found two months after the victim went missing, a forensic pathologist testified that, given the extensive decomposition and animal activity, particularly about the victim's head, face and left side of her body, an exact cause of...