Case ID: ad3d_128/html/0543-02.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 Robert Denis, Appellant.
    [10 NYS3d 34]
   Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (William I. Mogulescu, J., at motion; Peter Benitez, J., at hearing, jury trial and sentencing), rendered March 2, 2011, convicting defendant of manslaughter in the first degree, attempted assault in the first degree, three counts of attempted assault in the secopd degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of 26V3 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing the jury’s credibility determinations. The evidence disproved defendant’s justification defense beyond a reasonable doubt.

The court correctly denied defendant’s motion for a Dunaway hearing on the ground that it was not supported by sufficient factual allegations, given the information available to defendant (see People v Lopez, 5 NY3d 753 [2005]; People v Mendoza, 82 NY2d 415 [1993]). Defendant’s motion only addressed his allegedly innocent behavior at the time of his arrest, although he was well aware that he had been arrested for an earlier homicide. Additionally, we conclude that at a hearing on defendant’s other suppression claims, the hearing court properly exercised its discretion in declining defendant’s request to expand the hearing to include the issue of probable cause.

We do not find the sentence excessive. Concur — Mazzarelli, J.P., Acosta, Saxe, Manzanet-Daniels and Clark, JJ.