People v. Williams
| Decision Date | 14 November 1974 |
| Parties | , 320 N.E.2d 867 The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Earl WILLIAMS and Regino Serrano, Appellants. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Edward A. Meilman and Robert Kasanof, New York City, for Earl Williams, appellant.
Sidney H. Stein and Robert L. Laufer, New York City, for Regino Serrano, Appellant.
Mario Merola, Dist. Atty. (Daniel J. Sullivan, New York City, of counsel), for respondent.
To sustain a conviction based exclusively on circumstantial evidence the facts from which the inference of the defendant's guilt is drawn must be established with certainty, must be inconsistent with his innocence and must exclude to a moral certainty every other reasonable hypothesis (Matter of Cleague, 22 N.Y.2d 363, 365--366, 292 N.Y.S.2d 861, 239 N.E.2d 617). We agree with the conclusion of the dissenter at the Appellate Division, Mr. Justice Francis T. Murphy, Jr., that the evidence in this record was not sufficient to meet this standard.
On this disposition of the appeal we do not reach defendants' other contentions.
The orders of the Appellate Division, 41 A.D.2d 711, 341 N.Y.S.2d 387, should be reversed and the indictment dismissed as to both defendants.
The issue is whether the circumstantial case against the defendants was sufficient, as a matter of law, to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. I conclude that it was, and, accordingly, would affirm the judgments of conviction.
Shortly after 2:00 a.m., on September 18, 1969, Jeremiah Sullivan was shot three times in the hallway of his Bronx apartment at 2340 Valentine Avenue. The fatal shots were heard by at least three persons. Frederic Hudson, an off-duty probationary patrolman, observed two men, later identified by him as the defendants, walking from the courtyard at 2340 Valentine Avenue within seconds after the last shot was fired. Patricia Lane, a resident at 2335 Valentine Avenue, also, within seconds of the shooting, observed two men, subsequently identified by her as the defendants, about 20--25 feet from the 2340 Valentine Avenue address. And Bea Schatzkin, a tenant at 2340 Valentine Avenue, again within seconds of the shots being fired, viewed the main floor hallway through the peephole of her apartment door and observed the victim lying prostrate on the floor of the empty hallway in front of the main entrance doors. 1
After hearing the shots, Officer Hudson crossed to the east side of Valentine Avenue and continued walking toward the 2340 address. The defendants, proceeding at a casual pace, walked past the officer. Upon entering the courtyard at 2340 Valentine Avenue, Hudson observed the victim, bleeding from the head, lying on the floor in the hallway near the entrance door which was smeared with blood. 2 Returning to the street, he observed the defendants turning onto 183rd Street, proceeding in an easterly direction. Hudson then called for assistance and within minutes a patrol car responded.
Furnished with a description by Hudson, the responding officers proceeded after the defendants. As their patrol car approached 183rd Street and Third Avenue, they observed two men, later identified as the defendants, running over the Park Avenue Bridge. The officers exited the patrol car, approached the defendants, who then had slowed to a walk, stopped and frisked them. Defendant Serrano was clutching a closed umbrella belonging to defendant Williams. It was later determined that a weapon had been discharged in close proximity to the parasol. Williams exclaimed that the two had not done anything but were merely waiting for a bus. 3 Asked where they were coming from, williams replied clothing, Williams explaining, and Serrano affirming, that he had been 'shooting up' and had gotten blood on his and Serrano's clothing. One of the arresting officers testified that after checking both of Williams' arms, he found no fresh needle marks, blood or scabs. However, a report prepared by the Narcotics Addiction Control Commission after a physical examination one week later (during which time Williams was in police custody) noted multiple old and fresh tracks and three fresh needle marks on both arms. Chemical analysis of the blood stains on defendants' clothing revealed that the blood was human blood, but was otherwise inconclusive. The murder weapon was not found.
At trial a defense witness, Samuel Leon, the proprietor of a grocery store on East 183rd Street near Park Avenue, testified that he kept the store open 24 hours a day and that Williams had been with...
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