Case ID: ad2d_168/html/0266-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Michael Rawlings, Also Known as Michael Rolands, Appellant.
   Judgment of the Supreme Court, New York County (Jerome Hornblass, J.), rendered October 30, 1987, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of burglary in the third degree and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an indetermínate prison term of from 3 Vi to 7 years, unanimously affirmed.

In this prosecution for the burglary of a restaurant, the only issue raised concerns the court’s charge to the jury with respect to the requirement that guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Aside from a possible failure to properly preserve the precise point made on appeal we have held that a change defining a reasonable doubt as a doubt for which a juror can "give a reason” is not erroneous (People v Santiago, 164 AD2d 824).

In any event, there was overwhelming proof of the defendant’s guilt. Concur—Sullivan, J. P., Milonas, Rosenberger, Ellerin and Rubin, JJ.