People v. Young

• Decision Date: 19 April 2018
• Docket Number: 108263
• Citation: 75 N.Y.S.3d 645,160 A.D.3d 1206
• Parties: The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. John YOUNG, Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

160 A.D.3d 1206
75 N.Y.S.3d 645

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent,
v.
John YOUNG, Appellant.

108263

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

Decided and Entered: April 19, 2018
Calendar Date: February 23, 2018

75 N.Y.S.3d 646

Todd G. Monahan, Schenectady, for appellant.

Robert M. Carney, District Attorney, Schenectady (Peter H. Willis of counsel), for respondent.

Before: Garry, P.J., Egan Jr., Lynch, Rumsey and Pritzker, JJ.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

Lynch, J.

75 N.Y.S.3d 647

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Schenectady County (Sypniewski, J.), rendered January 15, 2016, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of burglary in the third degree, criminal mischief in the second degree and petit larceny.

In July 2014, Rehabilitation Support Services (hereinafter RSS), a business located in the City of Schenectady, Schenectady County, reported a burglary to the City of Schenectady Police Department. The suspect stole $40 in petty cash and caused property damage to exterior and interior doors in the amount of $5,172.05. During the resulting police investigation, blood evidence was discovered on one of the damaged doors and sample swabs were collected and sent for DNA analysis. Defendant, who worked for RSS in July 2014, was arrested for the RSS burglary in March 2015. After testifying before a grand jury, defendant was charged by indictment with one count each of burglary in the third degree, criminal mischief in the second degree and petit larceny. In November 2015, a jury convicted defendant of all three counts and defendant now appeals. At trial, defendant did not dispute the presence of his blood on the damaged door, but explained that the blood must have transferred there when, after being injured at work, he entered the room to get a bandage.

Initially, we find that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. Where, as here, a different verdict would not have been unreasonable, we must "like the trier of fact below, weigh the relative probative force of conflicting testimony and the relative strength of conflicting inferences that may be drawn from the testimony" to determine whether the jury gave "the evidence the weight it should be accorded" ( People v. Romero, 7 N.Y.3d 633, 634, 826 N.Y.S.2d 163, 859 N.E.2d 902 [2006] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; accord People v. Babcock, 152 A.D.3d 962, 965, 59 N.Y.S.3d 527 [2017], lv denied 30 N.Y.3d 947, 67 N.Y.S.3d 130, 89 N.E.3d 520 [2017] ). "A person is guilty of burglary in the third degree when he [or she] knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in a building with intent to commit a crime therein" ( Penal Law § 140.20 ). "A person is guilty of criminal mischief in the second degree when with the intent to damage property of another person, and having no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he [or she] has such right, he [or she] damages property of another person in an amount exceeding [$1,500]" ( Penal Law § 145.10 ). A guilty verdict of petit larceny is supported by evidence that an individual "steals property" ( Penal Law § 155.25 ).

At trial, the project manager at RSS testified that petty cash was kept locked in a desk drawer in an office that he shared with another employee who was a supervisor at RSS (hereinafter the supervisor). The supervisor testified that on July 1, 2014, he worked from 6:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and defendant worked from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The supervisor recalled that he was the last person to leave the building; he turned off the lights and locked the office door, and there was nothing remarkable or abnormal about the condition of his office doorway before he left the building. The next morning, when the supervisor arrived at 5:00 a.m., the building

75 N.Y.S.3d 648

was dark but, when he turned on the lights and began to walk towards the office, he noticed that the door was open. Concerned that someone might still be in the building, he left and contacted the police. The supervisor testified that he later discovered that the office door was broken, there were red smudges in the doorway, the desk drawer was pried open and there was change strewn across the project manager's desk. The project manager testified that when he arrived at work after learning about the break-in, he discovered that approximately $40 was missing from his desk drawer. Further, the project manager testified that the amount to repair the property damaged during the break-in totaled $5,172.05.

The People submitted video images captured by a security camera located across the street from RSS and four cameras located at RSS. Both the supervisor and the project manager testified that they reviewed the footage with the police and concluded that the individual depicted on the video prying open the door to RSS resembled defendant and four other RSS employees. A police officer testified that when he arrived at RSS the morning of the break-in, he noticed what he believed to be blood on the doorway; he swabbed the substance and placed it with the evidence collected at the scene. A forensic scientist confirmed that the substance was blood and that it was sent for entry into the Combined DNA Index System. The testimony and evidence established that defendant's DNA matched the blood sample taken from the doorway at RSS after the break-in. Defendant testified that his blood may have transferred to the doorway because he cut his hand and he went into the office to get a bandage, but there was no evidence to document such an injury. In our view, "an acquittal would not have been unreasonable" ( People v. Danielson, 9 N.Y.3d 342, 348, 849 N.Y.S.2d 480, 880 N.E.2d 1 [2007] ). When we give the requisite deference to the jury's ability to observe the witnesses (see People v. Mateo, 2 N.Y.3d 383, 410, 779 N.Y.S.2d 399, 811 N.E.2d 1053 [2004], cert denied 542 U.S. 946, 124 S.Ct. 2929, 159 L.Ed.2d 828 [2004] ), our independent review of the evidence in a neutral light leads us to conclude that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v. Morrison, 127 A.D.3d 1341, 1343, 6 N.Y.S.3d 781 [2015], lv denied 26 N.Y.3d 932, 17 N.Y.S.3d 95, 38 N.E.3d 841 [2015] ).

Next, defendant claims that County Court should have stricken testimony by an investigator with the Schenectady Police Department that defendant may have intentionally misstated his name when he provided the DNA sample via buccal swab to the investigator. Indisputably, the container where the swab was placed was labeled "John T. Kelley" not "John T. Young." The investigator's testimony established that this container was immediately placed into a larger box that was labeled with defendant's correct name and date of birth. With the exception of defendant's last name, the first container was labeled with the same identifying information as was included on the larger box. During his direct examination, the investigator...