Articles Posted in Violent Crimes

In a recent Murder case coming before the New York Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, the defendant asked for a new trial because the trial court judge had closed the courtroom during the middle of his eight-day jury trial. Under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, defendants are entitled to public trials, and according to the defendant, the trial court deprived him of this fundamental right to a public trial. Looking at the evidence in the record, the higher court agreed with the defendant and ended up granting him a new trial.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant was criminally charged with second-degree murder. His case went to trial, and the State asked the judge to close the courtroom a few days into the eight-day trial. During a conversation between the attorneys and the judge, the judge noted that several individuals in the courtroom had been “very intimidating,” had inappropriately taken photos during the proceedings, and had posted these photos on social media.

The defendant’s attorney asked if the court would consider banning cell phones instead of excluding the public from the trial, but the judge decided to proceed with closing the courtroom. The defendant’s trial proceeded in private, and the jury later found him guilty as charged. The defendant was then sentenced accordingly.

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Last month, a New York appellate court decided a case that overturned a young defendant’s murder conviction after trial and suppressed statements that were made to his father and recorded by the police in the police station. Originally, the defendant had been found guilty of several violent crimes, including murder in the second degree. After the trial court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress incriminating statements, the defendant appealed; on appeal, the higher court unanimously agreed that the trial court’s decision should be reversed.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant was 15 years old when he was charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and attempted robbery. Officers brought the defendant to the station upon his arrest, at which point they complied with their legal obligation to call one of the defendant’s parents or guardians. The defendant’s father immediately came to the station and informed the officers that they wanted to speak with an attorney before submitting to an interview.

At that point, the officers left the interview room, leaving the defendant and his father alone with a video camera recording the conversation. The defendant’s face collapsed into his hands, and he began speaking in a distressed tone to his father. His father warned him to stop talking and reminded his son about the video.  However, the defendant continued and attempted to make his conversation inaudible by covering his mouth and speaking in hushed tones.  Later the defendant discovered that their conversation had been recorded and that the State wanted to use the recording as evidence at trial.  Indeed much of the video was inaudible but what was audible was played for the jury.

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Recently, a defendant in New York charged with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree appealed his guilty verdict and related sentence. The defendant argued before the Appellate Court that parts of his trial were unfair; namely, the testimony offered about the murder victim’s cause of death violated his constitutional right to cross-examine the witness. Looking at the record of the case, the Appellate Court disagreed and ultimately denied the defendant’s appeal.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant was criminally charged after investigators tracked him down in 2015. The investigators were looking for an individual connected to the shooting death of an unarmed man in Brooklyn in May 2015, and they eventually had enough evidence to charge the defendant in this case.

The defendant’s case went to trial in June 2018, and he was found guilty both of murder and criminal possession of a weapon. After his sentencing hearing, the defendant promptly appealed.

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In a case before the New York Appellate Division in late November, the defendant asked the court to reconsider his 2016 guilty conviction. Originally, the defendant was charged with both murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. A jury found him guilty at trial, and he promptly appealed, arguing the evidence was insufficient to support his guilty verdict.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant was charged after police found him aiming a gun in the direction of a large group of men. Apparently, the men in the group were all part of the same gang, and the defendant in this case was part of the rival gang. The defendant fired his gun three times, subsequently killing one of the men. After the incident, the defendant fled the scene, throwing his gun into the bushes nearby as he ran.

Police eventually found the defendant, and he was charged accordingly. At trial, the jury heard evidence that the defendant had told friends he needed to protect his family and go after members of the rival gang. He stated to these friends that violence was his only reasonable form of protection and that he was targeting these men in particular because of their rivalry.

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In a recent New York criminal case, the appellate court affirmed the trial court decision, establishing that the finding and verdict at trial by the jury was not against the weight of the evidence. The defendant was initially arrested and charged with manslaughter in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child. He was later convicted by a jury verdict of criminally negligent homicide as a lesser included offense of manslaughter in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the evidence presented at trial included testimony from the mother of the child as well as statements made by the defendant to law enforcement officers. The statements established that the defendant’s then five-month-old daughter was declared dead approximately 30 minutes after her arrival at Elmhurst Hospital after failed resuscitation efforts by the emergency medical technician and emergency room physician. Although the child had no obvious external injuries, an autopsy revealed she had sustained injuries consistent with abusive head trauma and violent shaking. The defendant was arrested and charged with manslaughter in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child.

Testimony provided at the trial established that the child woke up crying at 2 a.m. on July 30, 2016, and the defendant tried to console her. After the child’s mother went to bed, the defendant got the child to stop crying and placed her in the crib in the couple’s bedroom. At 6:30 a.m., the defendant found the child in the crib, cold and unresponsive. The prosecution presented testimony from two experts that the child had died because the third, fourth, and fifth cervical nerves arising off of her spinal cord near her neck were severed, which resulted in paralysis of her diaphragm, causing her to stop breathing and die minutes later. Those same experts testified that the injuries were caused by violent, forceful shaking, and could not be explained as normal jostling or bouncing of an infant.

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In a recent New York criminal case, the New York Appellate Division affirmed the trial court decision, finding that the court had properly denied the defendant’s omnibus motion to suppress statements. Further, the appellate court denied the defendant’s claims that the lower court acted with improvidence by allowing the State to recall an expert, that evidence introduced by the State improperly appealed to the jury’s sympathy, and that the sentence imposed was excessive. The defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree by jury verdict.

Facts of the Case

According to the opinion, the defendant was convicted by a jury in the County Court of Westchester County on October 3, 2019, for murder in the second degree. The defendant’s appeal brought for review the denial, after a hearing, of the part of the defendant’s omnibus motion, which was to suppress his statements to law enforcement officials. The defendant was convicted in part based on statements he made to the police while in custody, as well as medical evidence. Those statements to law enforcement officers came after he was arrested and advised of his Miranda rights.

The Decision

On appeal, the defendant made several claims, including filing an omnibus motion to suppress his statements to law enforcement officials, claiming that it was an improvident exercise of the County Court’s discretion to permit the prosecution to recall their expert witness to address an issue raised during cross-examination of a police officer, claiming that a 20-second “love you video” from the mother to the deceased child victim improperly appealed to the jury’s sympathy, and a claim that the sentence imposed was excessive.

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