Court Opinion

ID: 5486584
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-10 02:15:10.043125+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:33:41.508295
License: Public Domain

OPINION OF THE COURT
Pigott, J.
The issue in this case is whether defendant was entitled to a charge of justification with respect to his conduct during a bizarre series of events that ended with the tragic death of one person and serious injury to two others. That defense, found in Penal Law § 35.05 (2), often referred to as the “choice-of-evils” defense, provides that conduct that would otherwise constitute an offense is justified when it:
“is necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury which is about to occur by reason of a situation occasioned or developed through no fault of the actor, and which is of such gravity that, according to ordinary standards of intelligence and morality, the desirability and urgency of avoiding such injury clearly outweigh the desirability of avoiding the injury sought to be prevented by the statute defining the offense in issue.”
Certain facts in this case are not in dispute. On August 1, 2005, one Francisco Rios double-parked his overloaded box truck, facing downhill, at 103-105 Mt. Eden Avenue in the Bronx. Rios placed the truck in reverse and turned the engine *344off, leaving the keys in the ignition before going into a store. Defendant, who was walking by, entered the truck. While defendant was inside, the truck descended Mt. Eden Avenue and struck several cars and three pedestrians, seriously injuring two and killing one. At trial, the People and defendant offered the jury markedly different stories as to how all of this occurred.
The People claimed that an intoxicated defendant, who admittedly knew Rios, wanted to play a trick on him by moving his truck to the bottom of the hill. This theory was supported by the testimony of an eyewitness, Carlos Montilla, who had known defendant for 10 years and witnessed the accident. Montilla testified that defendant exited the truck after the incident and asked him, “How many people did I kill?” Montilla, seeing three people laying in the road, responded, “[Y]ou killed three people,” to which defendant replied, “Oh, I was joking around with the truck. I was making a joke and look at what I’ve done.” A police officer, called to the scene, testified that defendant had “glassy” eyes and “slurred” speech. Evidence established that defendant had a blood alcohol content of .09% nearly four hours after the incident which, according to an expert called by the People, meant that his blood alcohol content at the time of the incident was between .13% and .17%, substantially above the “legal limit” of .08%.
Defendant had a different version of events. He testified that he had previously owned a supermarket on Mt. Eden Avenue and was familiar with Rios’s truck because Rios had delivered produce to his store. On this day as he was walking past the truck, he “saw a movement of the truck.” He ran between parked cars to get to the truck which, by this time, was descending the hill and approaching an intersection. Defendant opened the passenger side door, jumped inside, slid over behind the steering wheel and pumped the brakes, to no avail. He tried steering, but the wheel was hard to move. Despite his best efforts, the truck struck several pedestrians crossing the street. He exited the truck on the passenger’s side, and went to a nearby bodega. Defendant denied knowing Montilla or making any statement to him after the incident.
At the charge conference following the close of proof, defense counsel sought the justification charge in accordance with Penal Law § 35.05 (2). The court denied the request, stating that based upon its reading of the statute and case law, it failed to “see how a ^justification [cjharge would be warranted under these particular facts and circumstances.”
*345The jury found defendant guilty of manslaughter in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.15 [1]), two counts of assault in the second degree (Penal Law § 120.05 [4]), vehicular manslaughter in the second degree (Penal Law § 125.12), two counts of vehicular assault in the second degree (Penal Law § 120.03 [1]), and two counts of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol (Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192 [2], [3]).
The Appellate Division, in a 3-2 decision, reversed, holding that because there was “a reasonable view of the evidence that defendant unlawfully entered and operated the [truck] while intoxicated in an attempt to avoid injury while confronting a situation not of his making, he was entitled to a justification charge,” further stating that Supreme Court’s “unexplained omission” of the charge constituted reversible error (72 AD3d 238, 239 [1st Dept 2010]). The dissenting Justices would have affirmed the trial court. A Justice of that Court granted the People leave to appeal, and we now reverse.
Addressing the most serious felonies of which defendant was convicted—manslaughter in the second degree and assault in the second degree—we conclude that there was no reasonable view of the evidence that would have supported a justification charge relative to either of those crimes (see People v Cox, 92 NY2d 1002, 1004-1005 [1998]). Penal Law § 35.05 (2) is often referred to as the “choice-of-evils” defense, and properly so. To be entitled to such a charge there must be two “evils.” And here, even under defendant’s scenario, there was no “evil” on his part. According to defendant, he was not committing any offense when he jumped into a runaway vehicle to prevent it doing harm to others. So, as to the most serious charges, a justification charge was clearly unwarranted.
Supreme Court erred, however, in refusing to give a justification charge relative to the counts of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. If defendant elected to operate a motor vehicle, here the truck, while under the influence of alcohol, in an attempt to prevent injury, he faced the choice of two evils: drive while intoxicated or risk a runaway truck causing injury. Therefore, Supreme Court should have granted defendant’s request for a justification charge with respect to the operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated counts. However, any error was harmless as evidenced by the jury’s conviction of defendant of the second-degree manslaughter and assault counts. To find defendant guilty of those charges, the jury was required to conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that defendant caused the *346truck’s movement, i.e., that it was not moving before he entered it. Because the jury concluded that it was defendant who caused the truck to move, and not, as defendant contended, that the truck was already moving, the jury never would have considered his “choice-of-evils” defense on the charge of driving while intoxicated. As a result, the error of not giving the justification charge with respect to the vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault counts, which include as an element the operation of a motor vehicle while intoxicated, was harmless, and defendant is not entitled to a new trial to correct the error.
Accordingly, the order of the Appellate Division should be reversed and the case remitted to the Appellate Division for consideration of the facts and issues raised but not determined on the appeal to that court.