Court Opinion

ID: 9785296
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 21:14:42.269757+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:15.299622
License: Public Domain

Pigott, J. (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent and would affirm the order of the Appellate Division. The majority states that it will not infer “that whatever the jury saw must have supported its verdict” because when conducting a review of the sufficiency of the evidence, this Court “cannot rely on facts of which no record is made” (majority op at 316). But that only underscores the critical flaw in the majority’s holding, namely, that it is the burden of defendant—the objecting party—and not the People, to develop an adequate record for appellate review (see People v Johnson, 205 AD2d 309 [1st Dept 1994], lv denied 84 NY2d 827 [1994], citing People u Olivo, 52 NY2d 309, 320 [1981]).
Here, defense counsel failed to make an adequate record, as was his burden, that the People’s evidence as to the count of assault in the first degree was legally insufficient. He could have easily demanded that a contemporaneous description of the victim’s arm be placed on the record, or asked that a photograph depicting the victim’s arm on the day of the trial be admitted in evidence. He did neither. The record reflects that the jury was shown color photographs of the victim’s arm, which were taken on the day of the attack, and that the victim displayed her arm to the jury at trial 20 months later. This, in my view, was sufficient to support the jury’s factual determination that the scars fell within the parameters of the assault in the first degree statute under which defendant was convicted as well as the court’s ruling that the evidence was sufficient to sustain that charge (see People v Coon, 34 AD3d 869, 870-871 [3d Dept 2006], *318lv denied 10 NY3d 763 [2008] [rejecting defendant’s claim of insufficiency of proof of element of serious physical injury, deferring to County Court’s assessment because it heard the testimony concerning the cuts and also had the opportunity to observe the resultant scars]; People v Irwin, 5 AD3d 1122, 1123 [4th Dept 2004], lv denied 3 NY3d 642 [2004] [victim’s wounds required surgery and, although she did not testify, photographs depicting her sutured wounds to the arm and hand were admitted in evidence and jury could have reasonably inferred that the wounds resulted in permanent scars]). The majority’s conclusion, in my view, is nothing more than a factual determination disguised as a sufficiency argument that this Court lacks the authority to make.
Chief Judge Lippman and Judges Ciparick, Graffeo, Read and Jones concur with Judge Smith; Judge Pigott dissents and votes to affirm in a separate opinion.
Order, insofar as appealed from, reversed and case remitted to Supreme Court, Bronx County, for further proceedings in accordance with the opinion herein.