People v. Reed

• Decision Date: 13 February 2014
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Lance J. REED, Appellant.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

22 N.Y.3d 530
6 N.E.3d 1108
983 N.Y.S.2d 752
2014 N.Y. Slip Op. 00899

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,
v.
Lance J. REED, Appellant.

Court of Appeals of New York.

Feb. 13, 2014.

Harris Beach PLLC, Pittsford (Svetlana K. Ivy of counsel), and Timothy P. Donaher, Public Defender, Rochester (Drew R. DuBrin of counsel), for appellant.

Sandra Doorley, District Attorney, Rochester (Nicole M. Fantigrossi of counsel), for respondent.

OPINION OF THE COURT
PIGOTT, J.

[6 N.E.3d 1109]

Shawn Thomas, a Rochester-area drug dealer, died of gunshot wounds to the head and chest on April 7, 2007. Before he left home that afternoon, Thomas had shown his girlfriend a large quantity of cash and asked her to count out $40,000. She did so, separating the $40,000 into banded $1,000 stacks and placing them in a plastic grocery bag bearing the logo of the Tops supermarket chain. She placed two knots in the top of the bag, tying the bag “real tight so you couldn't take it out.” She then gave the bag to Thomas, who told her that he was going to re-up, which she took to mean that he was going to buy a supply of drugs for resale. Thomas left his home at around 1:00 p.m.

About an hour later the police responded to a residential neighborhood in Rochester, where Thomas lay dead of gunshot wounds in the middle of a street. His car was nearby. The police interviewed a number of neighborhood residents and passers-by who had been in the area. The interviews revealed that defendant Lance Jermaine Reed, whose father lived in the immediate vicinity, was present at the time of the shooting, and fled.

A witness who had been visiting defendant's father at the time of the shooting recalled that defendant arrived at his father's apartment at about 2:00 p.m. and asked to use his father's car, a gray 1990 Lincoln Town Car with a dark blue roof. While defendant was in the apartment, the father's visitor heard gunshots outside. Defendant told her, “those are firecrackers,” pushed her aside and bolted from the house. Looking outside, the visitor saw a man lying in the street.

Other neighborhood residents similarly heard gun shots and saw a man walk or run from defendant's father's apartment to a gray Lincoln Town Car with a dark blue top, get in the driver's seat, and drive off. A mail carrier noticed someone lying in the middle of the street, and saw a man bend over the body quickly, get back up, and drive away in a car with a dark blue top. He wrote down part of the license plate number.

One eyewitness saw the actual shooting. He recalled that a masked man approached Thomas from behind and shot him in the head and twice more in the body, with a revolver, before getting into the rear seat of a Lincoln Town Car, also described as gray with a blue top. The eyewitness saw two other men get into the car; one was defendant, whom the eyewitness identified at trial. Defendant was in the driver's seat. The men fled in the car.

The Lincoln, its plate number matching what the mail carrier had written down, was found in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the Rochester area, where defendant's sister lived. She described defendant as having arrived at her apartment in the afternoon of the shooting, looking “scared” and “disheveled” and breathing heavily. The police obtained permission to tow and search the vehicle.

Under the armrest between the front seats of the vehicle, the police found a plastic Tops grocery bag, tied at the top and “ripped out” at the bottom. The next day, April 8, Thomas's girlfriend identified the bag as the same one she had used to put the $40,000 in. At trial, she would testify that she had recognized it by its two knots.

Rochester police questioned defendant on April 9, 2007. Defendant admitted that he had been with Thomas, whom he had known, just before the killing and that he had driven his father's Lincoln away from

[6 N.E.3d 1110]

the scene immediately after the killing. Defendant told the police that Thomas had agreed to follow him to defendant's father's house, in his (Thomas's) car, with the intention of giving him a ride after defendant dropped off his father's car. Defendant said that he was dropping off the keys when he heard what sounded like firecrackers outside, and that, seeing Thomas lying in the middle of the street, he fled in the Lincoln because he did not “know what was going on.” In subsequent interviews, defendant was less forthcoming. He was arrested nearly a year later, on April 2, 2008, and charged with two counts of first-degree robbery, and one count each of felony murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

At trial, the jury heard testimony by the witnesses from the neighborhood, including the eyewitness who identified defendant as the man he had seen driving the Lincoln from the scene, with the gunman in the backseat. In addition, Thomas's girlfriend testified about the events preceding his departure from home on April 7, 2007, and concerning her April 8, 2007 identification of the Tops bag found in the Lincoln as the same bag she had tied and put the cash in. However, no witness testified to seeing anything being taken from Thomas at the time of the shooting.

At the end of the People's case, defendant moved for a trial order of dismissal, under CPL 290.10(1), contending that there was legally insufficient evidence of robbery and therefore of felony murder.

The jury found defendant guilty of two counts of first-degree robbery as an accessory and one count of second-degree murder as an accessory, acquitting him of the weapon possession charge. County Court then denied defendant's motion for a trial order of dismissal. The Appellate Division affirmed the judgment (97 A.D.3d 1142, 948 N.Y.S.2d 493 [2012] ). Two Justices dissented, one of whom granted defendant leave to appeal to this Court.

Defendant does...