People v. Rodriguez

• Decision Date: 21 January 2016
• Citation: 135 A.D.3d 1181,23 N.Y.S.3d 692
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Joseph RODRIGUEZ, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

135 A.D.3d 1181
23 N.Y.S.3d 692

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,
v.
Joseph RODRIGUEZ, Appellant.

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

Jan. 21, 2016.

23 N.Y.S.3d 693

Paul J. Connolly, Delmar, for appellant.

D. Holley Carnright, District Attorney, Kingston (Jason P. Weinstein of counsel), for respondent.

Before: LAHTINEN, J.P., McCARTHY, EGAN JR., LYNCH and DEVINE, JJ.

McCARTHY, J.

135 A.D.3d 1182

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Ulster County (Williams, J.), rendered February 10, 2014, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of murder in the second degree.

After receiving a 911 call from defendant indicating that his two-year-old niece (hereinafter the victim) was missing, police arrived at defendant's residence to find his wife holding the victim's body after it had been discovered in the yard nearby. An autopsy performed the following day revealed that the victim's death was caused by blunt force trauma to her head. Thereafter, defendant was charged in a sealed indictment with one count of murder in the second degree. Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted as charged and, thereafter, sentenced to a prison term of 25 years to life. Defendant appeals, and we affirm.

Defendant's challenges to the legal sufficiency of the evidence and the weight of the evidence in regard to the proof as to his identity as the perpetrator is without merit given the overwhelming evidence establishing his guilt. According to the wife's testimony, on the morning in question, defendant assisted the other children in the home in preparing for school and getting on the school bus. According to her, defendant returned to bed thereafter and informed her that the victim was still sleeping. Therefore, at that point, the only three people in the home were defendant, the wife and the victim.

According to the wife, during that same morning, defendant appeared to receive two telephone calls from their neighbor regarding the fact that defendant had previously borrowed power tools from him. These apparent conversations prompted defendant to leave the bedroom on two separate occasions for short periods of time, and defendant indicated, on both occasions, that he was leaving the bedroom to return tools to the neighbor. The neighbor testified that, on the same morning, he did receive a voice mail message on his phone from defendant regarding the tools. However, the neighbor further testified that he was not at his home that morning and that he did not

135 A.D.3d 1183

have any conversation with defendant regarding the return of the tools. When the neighbor returned home, he did not find that any of his tools had been returned. The wife further explained that, shortly after she got out of bed, she discovered that the victim was not in her bedroom. After calling 911, they began to search the area outside of the home. The wife testified that defendant then discovered the victim's body nearby on top of a pile of leaves. According to the wife, while she had rushed over, picked up the victim and began to carry her away from that spot, defendant, upon seeing the victim, had fallen to his knees nearby.

23 N.Y.S.3d 694

Police investigation thereafter uncovered various evidence relevant to establishing the identity of the murderer. Evidence introduced at trial established that the police found defendant's work boots in the master bedroom of the home and that DNA analysis of a blood spot on those boots revealed that the blood came from the victim.¹ Further evidence established that a sink in an upstairs bathroom had traces of blood on it and that there were bloody paper towels in a garbage receptacle in that same bathroom. The washing machine in the home contained a single item of clothing. That item was a white, damp men's T-shirt that smelled of bleach and had a red stain. The stain was later determined to be blood, and that stain contained a DNA contribution from the victim.

Despite blood spatter analysis that indicated that the victim had been killed in the yard outside of the home, the police found a blood stain on the sill of a window in a guest bedroom. An air conditioner had also apparently been removed from the same window, as it was sitting on the floor nearby. Expert testimony established that this blood was directly applied to the window sill from some source.²

In canvassing the bloody leaves at and around the location where the victim's body was discovered, a set of car keys was discovered underneath the leaves. The wife's testimony established that those keys were the sole set of keys to defendant's and her car and that she had not driven the car in the two prior days. In a statement to police, defendant indicated that he had driven the car the night before the victim's death.

135 A.D.3d 1184

The foregoing evidence reveals that defendant lied to his wife about his whereabouts on the morning in question and that, shortly after the victim's murder, two items of defendant's wardrobe were found with blood and the victim's DNA on them. One of those items appeared to have been recently cleaned with bleach. Additional evidence found within the house indicated further efforts to clean up blood. Although defendant had not interacted with the victim's body when it was discovered during his search with his wife, car keys last in defendant's possession were found underneath the bloody leaves surrounding the victim's body. Considered as a whole, the evidence introduced at trial overwhelmingly establishes that defendant was the perpetrator of the victim's murder (see People v. Miles, 15 A.D.3d 686,...