Opinion ID: 2057283
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: People v Burgos-Santos

Text: Following a jury trial, Burgos-Santos was convicted of murder in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.25 [2] [depraved indifference murder]) and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (Penal Law § 265.03). The testimony of the People's witnesses at trial established that, following a verbal dispute with three unarmed men, defendant retrieved a gun from his car and, despite the close proximity of numerous other persons, fired it at the three men, fatally wounding one of them. Defendant, however, testifying on his own behalf, claimed that he was the victim of an assault by the same three men and that the gun accidentally discharged while held by one of his assailants. According to defendant, the men attacked him outside his car and he realized that one of them was holding a gun only after he grabbed the man's hand and heard the gun go off. Defendant claimed that the men then ran away and he drove home without further incident. On cross-examination, the trial court permitted the prosecutor to impeach defendant with a notice of alibi filed by defense counsel pursuant to CPL 250.20, which stated that defendant intended to present a defense that he was at his own home at the time of the shooting incident and to call his common-law wife as an alibi witness. The trial court concluded that the prosecutor could use the alibi notice for impeachment purposes despite the fact that defendant had withdrawn it prior to trial. The Appellate Division affirmed (287 AD2d 338), holding that the trial court properly permitted the prosecutor to impeach defendant with his withdrawn and untruthful alibi notice, since the notice was a prior inconsistent statement and an informal judicial admission. ( Id. at 338-339.) We disagree, but nonetheless affirm, concluding that in this case the use of the alibi notice was harmless error.