People v. Roche
| Decision Date | 30 August 2001 |
| Citation | 729 N.Y.S.2d 722 |
| Parties | (A.D. 1 Dept. 2001) The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Ramon Roche, Defendant-Appellant. 4097 : FIRST JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Theresa A. Foudy, for respondent,
Eunice C. Lee, for defendant-appellant.
Rosenberger, J.P., Nardelli, Tom, Andrias, Ellerin, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Renee White, J.), rendered October 19, 1998, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and imposing a sentence of 25 years to life, reversed, on the law and the facts, and the matter remanded for a new trial.
We agree with defendant that the court erred in refusing his request for a charge on the affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance (Penal Law §125.25[1][a]) at his trial for the death of his common-law wife.
(People v Harris, 95 N.Y.2d 316, 319 [citations omitted]). To be entitled to such a charge, a court must determine that sufficient evidence has been presented for the jury to find, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the subjective and objective elements have been established (id.). In considering whether the extreme emotional defense should have been charged, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the defendant (id., at 320).
Here, there is sufficient evidence from which a jury could conclude that defendant lost self-control. In fact, the People argued during summation that defendant "snapped" and killed his wife in a "frenzied" "fit of rage." The source of the rage was the contentious and volatile relationship between defendant and his wife, which was characterized by her repeated "yelling," "berating" and "making demands" of defendant. There is proof that on the day of the murder, she had been out until the early morning the previous night, she had made a number of demands, which required defendant to walk up and down the stairs to their fifth floor walk-up apartment, and that she yelled at and berated him during a heated argument. The People also argued that the slashes the wife sustained in the face showed "deep seated passionate emotion."
Although the People "concede that the use of the words 'frenzy' and ' frenzied'... was more suggestive of loss of self-control" and was "perhaps justified by the forensic evidence showing that defendant had attacked [his wife] ferociously," they argue defendant's conduct was influenced by anger. Whether defendant acted out of anger as the People argue now, or out of loss of self-control as they argued in summation, is for the jury to decide in determining whether to accept or reject the affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance (see, id., at 321).
As to the second element, a jury could conclude that the wife's treatment of defendant was sufficiently abusive so as to make his emotional disturbance reasonable.
The medical expert called by defendant, a medical examiner from another New York jurisdiction, did not testify that the wounds found on the deceased were not characteristic of those found in a case where there had been a prior relationship between victim and stabber, as the dissent reads her testimony. She testified that they were equally consistent with cases involving a prior relationship and those involving a stranger as stabber. The dissent also relies heavily on defendant's actions after the death of the victim. While these actions are relevant, they are but some among the many items of evidence to be considered by the jurors. Actions taking place after the occurrence cannot foreclose a jury from considering the defendant's mental state at the time of the actions leading to the death of the decedent.
A new trial with proper jury instructions is required.
All concur except Tom, J. who dissents in a memorandum as follows:
Insofar as I conclude that, on the basis of this record, the trial court properly refused to give the charge of the affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance, I respectfully dissent. I find no basis to dispute that defendant, the killer, might have been emotional when he killed Lillian Rivera, his girlfriend. But I find no basis to conclude that his emotional state was so severely disturbed as set forth under prevailing law that he should have been able to avail himself of the defense at trial. Hence, I would affirm the judgment of conviction.
The People's witnesses included Gilberto Franco and his mother, Norma Ruiz, who lived in the apartment beneath the one shared by defendant and Rivera. The neighbors of this six-story walk-up building were acquainted with defendant and Rivera. Franco testified that he often heard defendant and Rivera arguing, and that people entered their apartment at all times of the day and night. On December 13, 1991, Franco heard them fighting again, after which defendant told Franco that he was "tired," he wanted to leave Rivera, that he needed a "better place to live," and that Rivera was "killing herself with drugs." On December 20, 1991, Ruiz saw them arguing in the hallway. Rivera, who was cursing, was particularly loud. During the afternoon of December 27, 1991, Franco saw defendant, who appeared to be "serious," and Rivera, who seemed "very angry," again arguing in the hallway. From Franco's apartment, he heard the argument continuing upstairs for another half hour, terminating with what sounded like breaking glass. As Franco left his apartment about 45 minutes later, he saw defendant on the staircase carrying a brown paper bag. Defendant, who asked Franco to call the police, said that his "crazy" wife had killed herself. Franco made the call and then went to defendant's apartment where he saw defendant again, now exiting his apartment. They both headed downstairs but defendant stopped to converse with someone. Franco, joined by a friend downstairs, went back up to defendant's apartment where they observed a lot of blood. Franco again saw defendant, now exiting a room with a duffel bag. Defendant explained that he had to remove items from the apartment because "the police [were] going to check it out," that he was going to his sister's house, and that he would be back to talk to the police.
Police Officer Frank Cosentino testified that he responded to a report of a possible suicide. He observed a trail of blood from the living room through the hallway into the kitchen, where he found Rivera's body in the vicinity of a lot of blood. Cosentino and responding Detectives Donald Barto and Benjamin Cretaro found a candle sconce and a figurine on the living room floor, and blood on a couch, love seat, coffee table, end table and the floor nearby. Blood smears on the walls appeared to be hand marks. Rivera apparently had been stabbed several times in the face, neck, chest, arms and hands. The detectives concluded that she had not committed suicide.
Meanwhile, defendant accompanied a woman to Sheila Bassnight's apartment in a building adjacent to defendant's, where he met Phillip Bell, whom he did not know. Defendant took off two sweaters, looking inside before he turned them inside out, and, while snorting heroin, nervously told them that "Mama" was cut up and dead. Later, while smoking crack with Bell in a different room of the apartment, defendant told Bell that "Mama" had been "going crazy," "tearing up the apartment," that she was dead on the kitchen floor and "I did it." As he was leaving Bassnight's apartment, he mused in concern that police might find his photo in his apartment and asked Bassnight to keep a newly arrived guest out of sight so as not to see defendant as he left. Defendant then went to his sister's apartment. He told an in-law, from whom he borrowed a pair of socks to replace the ones he threw in the garbage (no blood was found on them during a subsequent examination), that Rivera had committed suicide, but later told his sister that during an argument, he hit Rivera and thought she was dead. Later that evening, defendant voluntarily went to the precinct where, obviously nervous and agitated, he declared Miranda warnings were quickly administered and defendant provided a written statement in which he related numerous inconsequential details of their interactions that afternoon. He claimed that he left the apartment to do errands for Rivera, upon his return he found her body in the kitchen, after which he ran out yelling "Mama killed herself," and told a neighbor to call the police. His details of what transpired thereafter differed in many respects from the testimony of the People's witnesses.
The Medical Examiner's report indicated that Rivera had received 23 wounds caused by a sharp object, three of which were deeply penetrating and fatal stab wounds inflicted by a 5-inch blade, with others representing slashes. The Medical Examiner ruled out suicide. Defendant's medical expert testified on direct examination that the victim's wounds were consistent with those of a murder by a stranger and on cross the expert also testified that the wounds could have been caused by someone who had a prior relationship with the deceased.
We need not detain ourselves with questions of reasonable doubt, in that evidence of defendant's guilt was overwhelming. The only issue is whether a reasonable view of the evidence manifested an objective, or, indeed, even a subjective, explanation to support defendant's alleged loss of self-control so...
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