People v. Snow

• Decision Date: 07 July 1988
• Citation: 530 N.Y.S.2d 913,138 A.D.2d 217
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Alphonzo SNOW, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 913

530 N.Y.S.2d 913

138 A.D.2d 217

PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Alphonzo SNOW, Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division Fourth Department.

July 7, 1988.

Donald M. Thompson, Rochester, for appellant.

Howard Relin, Dist. Atty., by Alan Cruikshank, Rochester for respondent.

Before CALLAHAN, J.P., and DOERR, GREEN, LAWTON and DAVIS, JJ.

GREEN, Justice.

The principal and novel question posed on this appeal is whether driving while intoxicated (DWI) as a felony (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192) may serve as the predicate for conviction of assault in the first degree under Penal Law § 120.10 We hold that it may not.

The facts are not in dispute and may be stated briefly. At approximately 6:45 a.m. on December 7, 1984 defendant was driving his car westbound on Main Street near the intersection with Plymouth Avenue in the City of Rochester. A police officer observed that defendant failed to proceed through a green light, waited until the light turned yellow, drove through the intersection and temporarily stopped his car on Main Street approximately one block west of Plymouth Avenue. Defendant then made a U-turn on Main Street and proceeded east at approximately 20 miles per hour. Defendant drove through a red light at the Main Street-Plymouth Avenue intersection and struck and seriously injured a pedestrian who was crossing Main Street.

This officer stopped to assist the pedestrian. Defendant did not stop and proceeded to his home a short distance away. When another officer eventually confronted the defendant in front of his home, a brief argument and scuffle ensued and defendant was arrested and taken into custody. Defendant voluntarily submitted to a breathalyzer test which revealed .15 of one percent by weight of alcohol in his blood.

Defendant was charged with two counts of driving while intoxicated (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192& ), as felonies (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192), because he had been previously convicted of DWI on December 28, 1983. Defendant also was charged with first degree assault (Penal Law § 120.10), second degree assault (Penal Law § 120.05), second degree vehicular assault (Penal Law § 120.03), leaving the scene of an accident (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 600), resisting arrest (Penal Law § 205.30), fourth degree criminal mischief (Penal Law § 145.00), failure to obey a traffic control device (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1111) and operation of an uninsured vehicle (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 319).

Defense counsel objected to the court charging first degree assault. He argued that the DWI felony could not be used as a basis for felonious assault and that the crime of vehicular assault was intended as the sole sanction against someone who causes serious physical injury to another by operation of a motor vehicle while intoxicated. The trial court rejected defendant's claim and the jury convicted defendant of all charges, except criminal mischief, of which he was acquitted; one of the DWI counts (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192), of which he was found guilty of driving while impaired, and operation of an uninsured vehicle, which was dismissed by the court prior to the verdict.

A person is guilty of the class C felony of assault in the first degree when "the course of and in furtherance of the commission or attempted commission of a felony or of immediate flight therefrom, he, or another participant if there be any, causes serious physical injury to a person other than one of the participants" (Penal Law § 120.10). Defendant argues that DWI should not be considered a felony for purposes of this statute. We agree.

At the outset, we recognize certain general principles. Although DWI is defined as a felony outside the penal law (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192), it may be considered a class E felony under the penal law (see, Penal Law §§ 10.0055.1070.00) as it has been, for example, in determining whether a defendant is a predicate felon for sentencing purposes ( see, People v. Barnes, 99 A.D.2d 877, 878, 472 N.Y.S.2d 471; People v. Clearwater, 98 A.D.2d 912, 913, 470 N.Y.S.2d 934). However, although as a general rule a prosecutor has discretion to prosecute under a general statute even where a more specific provision is available, that discretion may be limited by a legislative intention to make a specific statute the exclusive means of punishing particular conduct ( People v. Valenza, 60 N.Y.2d 363, 371, 469 N.Y.S.2d 642, 457 N.E.2d 748; People v. Costello, 305 N.Y. 63, 110 N.E.2d 880; People v. Knatt, 156 N.Y. 302, 50 N.E. 835). Moreover, we must be careful to construe provisions of the penal law "according to the fair import of their terms to promote justice and effect the objects of the law" (Penal Law § 5.00) and to avoid extending criminal responsibility beyond the fair scope of the legislative mandate ( see, People v. P.J. Video, 68 N.Y.2d 296, 308, 508 N.Y.S.2d 907, 501 N.E. 556, cert. den. 479 U.S. 1091, 107 S.Ct. 1301, 94 L.Ed.2d 156; People v. Case, 42 N.Y.2d 98, 101, 396 N.Y.S.2d 841, 365 N.E.2d 872; People v. Gottlieb, 36 N.Y.2d 629, 632, 370 N.Y.S.2d 884, 331 N.E.2d 670).

Defendant's most compelling argument against his first degree assault conviction rests upon the statutory scheme relating to assaults and vehicular crimes. As defendant points out, the 1983 enactment of the vehicular assault and vehicular manslaughter statutes (L.1983, ch. 298) was prompted by legislative concern with injury and death caused by intoxicated drivers. When serious physical injury is caused the crime is vehicular assault; when death is caused the crime is vehicular manslaughter (see, 1983 New York State Legislative Annual, at 134). While first degree assault is a class C felony (Penal Law § 120.10), vehicular manslaughter, at the time of defendant's conviction, was only a class D felony (Penal Law § 125.12). In 1985, the Legislature amended the vehicular manslaughter provision by adding a higher degree of the crime (class C felony if the defendant is driving with a suspended or revoked license) (Penal Law § 125.13, added by L.1985, ch. 507), and similarly amended the vehicular assault provisions (Penal Law § 120.04, added by L.1985, ch. 507).

On the facts of this case, defendant could have been found guilty only of second degree vehicular assault, a class E felony (Penal Law § 120.03), because the victim of the incident suffered serious physical injury. Had the victim died, defendant could have been convicted of second degree vehicular manslaughter, a class D felony (Penal Law § 125.12). Defendant, however, was convicted of first degree assault under Penal Law § 120.10(4), a class C felony, a more serious crime than could have been charged if the victim had died. This is an unreasonable and unjust result and could not have been intended by the Legislature (see, McKinney's Cons. Laws of N.Y., Book 1, Statutes § 143; Zappone v. Home Ins. Co., 55 N.Y.2d 131, 137, 447 N.Y.S.2d 911, 432 N.E.2d 783; Matter of Allstate Ins. Co. v. Libow, 106 A.D.2d 110, 114, 482 N.Y.S.2d 860, affd. 65 N.Y.2d 807, 493 N.Y.S.2d 127, 482 N.E.2d 923; People v. Jackson, 106 A.D.2d 93, 96, 483 N.Y.S.2d 725).

Moreover, the fact that a defendant may be convicted of violating other provisions of the general assault statutes for similar conduct does not, as the People suggest, eliminate the inequity of this result. Like the vehicular assault statutes, the general assault provisions that may apply in the circumstances of this case require proof of a culpable mental state ( see e.g., People v. Van Sickle, 120 A.D.2d 897, 502 N.Y.S.2d 817, lv. denied 68 N.Y.2d 760, 506 N.Y.S.2d 1048, 497 N.E.2d 718 People v. Reynolds, 133 A.D.2d 499, 519 N.Y.S.2d 425, lv. denied 70 N.Y.2d 803, 522 N.Y.S.2d 120, 516 N.E.2d 1234 People v. Wilson, 129 A.D.2d 514, 514 N.Y.S.2d 366, lv. denied 70 N.Y.2d 719, 519 N.Y.S.2d 1055, 513 N.E.2d 1323 ). Defendant, however, was convicted of first degree assault without any proof of his culpable mental state and based solely on the fact that he had been convicted of a prior DWI within the preceding ten years.

This result is contrary to the legislative history and intent behind the felony assault statute. Proof of intent to commit the underlying felony was required under the former penal law ( see, People v. Katz, 290 N.Y. 361, 365-366, 49 N.E.2d 482; People v. Kay, 17 A.D.2d 773, 232 N.Y.S.2d 293; ...