People v. Skinner
| Decision Date | 12 October 1995 |
| Citation | 220 A.D.2d 806,632 N.Y.S.2d 283 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Robert SKINNER, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
Roger M. Fritts, Public Defender (Jeanne M. Heran, of counsel), Albany, for appellant.
Sol Greenberg, District Attorney (Risa L. Viglucci, of counsel), Albany, for respondent.
Before MIKOLL, J.P., and CREW, CASEY, YESAWICH and PETERS, JJ.
MIKOLL, Justice Presiding.
Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Keegan, J.), rendered October 20, 1992 in Albany County, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of murder in the second degree (four counts) and burglary in the first degree (two counts).
The relevant facts are more fully set forth in this court's prior decision in People v. Mariani, 203 A.D.2d 717, 610 N.Y.S.2d 967, lv. denied 84 N.Y.2d 869, 618 N.Y.S.2d 15, 642 N.E.2d 334. Briefly, defendant and his codefendants, James Mariani and Keith Snare (see, People v. Snare, 216 A.D.2d 674, 628 N.Y.S.2d 215), were indicted and charged with numerous counts of, inter alia, murder in the second degree and burglary of the home of Jake Cohn and Dora Cohn on May 15, 1986. Following a joint jury trial, defendant was convicted of four counts of murder in the second degree (two counts of intentional murder and two counts of felony murder) and two counts of burglary in the first degree. Defendant was sentenced to prison terms of 25 years to life on the two intentional murder counts and 12 1/2 to 25 years on the first of the burglary counts, all to be served consecutively for a total of 62 1/2 years to life. Defendant was given identical sentences for the remaining murder and burglary counts, but they are to run concurrently with the other terms. This appeal followed.
We affirm. Initially, we note that defendant's contention that the integrity of the Grand Jury process was impaired by the presence of perjured witnesses is an issue virtually identical to one raised by Mariani that we have previously determined in the People's favor (see, People v. Mariani, supra, at 719, 610 N.Y.S.2d 967). As for defendant's claim that the prosecutor improperly presented evidence of uncharged crimes and prior bad acts by defendant to the Grand Jury, we conclude that the majority of this testimony was relevant to establish the connection between defendant and the witness (see, People v. Smith, 215 A.D.2d 940, 628 N.Y.S.2d 190) and was necessary to provide a complete and coherent narrative (cf., People v. Conyers, 160 A.D.2d 318, 319, 553 N.Y.S.2d 732, lv. denied 76 N.Y.2d 786, 559 N.Y.S.2d 991, 559 N.E.2d 685). In any event, the Grand Jury was properly instructed to disregard testimony regarding other crimes (cf., People v. Smith, supra ), and we find that none of the alleged improprieties "sufficiently impaired the integrity of the Grand Jury proceedings so that prejudice to defendant[ ] may have resulted" (People v. Perry, 199 A.D.2d 889, 893, 605 N.Y.S.2d 790, lv. denied 83 N.Y.2d 856, 612 N.Y.S.2d 388, 634 N.E.2d 989).
We similarly reject defendant's challenge to the suppression hearing rulings. Defendant's claim that Supreme Court improperly restricted the cross-examination of a witness (see, People v. Gerace, 172 A.D.2d 688, 689, 568 N.Y.S.2d 833, lv. denied 78 N.Y.2d 1076, 577 N.Y.S.2d 239, 583 N.E.2d 951) is not borne out by the record. Instead, the minutes show that defense counsel had been allowed to cross-examine the witness but that Supreme Court refused a request to allow further cross-examination after counsel for one of the codefendants finished his questioning. Notably, there had been no redirect; thus, Supreme Court simply exercised its discretion to limit the scope and extent of cross-examination (see, People v. Bolling, 167 A.D.2d 345, 346, 561 N.Y.S.2d 308).
We are also unpersuaded by defendant's claim that Supreme Court erroneously denied his application for the production of potential inmate witnesses at that aspect of the hearing addressing defendant's motion to suppress based upon his claim of an agency relationship between inmate witnesses and the police. Along these lines, we note that it is clear that the focus of defendant's motion to suppress on this ground involved an...
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