Court Opinion

ID: 9876259
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-26 22:54:56.846435+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:47:10.263591
License: Public Domain

Moskowitz and Kapnick, JJ.,
dissent in part in a memorandum by Kapnick, J., as follows: Defendant Carlos Tapia was charged and convicted after a jury trial with attempted assault in the first degree based on the use of a dangerous instrument under an acting-in-concert theory. Because the People failed to prove a crucial required element of this count, namely, that defendant or the other alleged attacker used a sharp instrument to cut the victim, I would find that the evidence was not legally sufficient to support the judgment of conviction.
I agree with the majority, that in assessing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, this Court, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the People, “must decide whether a jury could rationally have excluded innocent explanations of the evidence . . . and found each element of the crime proved beyond a reasonable doubt” (People v Reed, 22 NY3d 530, 535 [2014]). Put another way, we “must determine whether there is any valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences which could lead a rational person to the conclusion reached by the jury on the basis of the evidence at trial and as a matter of law satisfy the proof and burden requirements for every element of the crime charged” (People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495 [1987] [citations *441omitted and emphasis added]). However, I disagree with the majority’s determination that here “the jury could have drawn a reasonable inference that defendant and Torres were acting in concert and one or the other caused the injuries to the victim’s neck and face by using a sharp instrument at some point in the assault.”
The question before us on this appeal is whether the evidence sufficed to show that defendant wielded the dangerous instrument or acted in concert with another, presumably Mr. Torres, who wielded the dangerous instrument, and slashed the victim’s face. As relevant here, a person is guilty of assault in the first degree when “[w]ith intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he causes such injury to such person or to a third person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument” (Penal Law § 120.10 [1]). “A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime when, with intent to commit a crime, he engages in conduct which tends to effect the commission of such crime” (Penal Law § 110.00). To establish accessorial liability, or acting-in-concert, the People must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused shared the “mental culpability of his companion or solicited, requested, commanded, importuned, or intentionally aided his companion” to cut the victim (Matter of Paris M., 218 AD2d 554, 556 [1st Dept 1995]; see also Penal Law § 20.00). Here, there was no proof beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant cut the victim’s face and neck or shared the intent of the individual, whether Mr. Torres or someone else, who did cut the victim (see People v Rivera, 176 AD2d 510, 511 [1st Dept 1991], lv denied 79 NY2d 863 [1992]).
While the victim’s face was cut several times by a sharp object, there was no witness’s testimony or any other direct evidence that defendant personally cut the victim. Rather, at trial, the victim testified repeatedly that he did not see who cut him or the weapon that was used to cut him. He further testified that he was face down on the ground at various times, indeed even covering his face and parts of his body while he was being punched and kicked; and, therefore, that he could not see who was attacking him or who cut him. Furthermore, the victim was unable to say when, exactly, during this attack he was cut, and only realized he had been cut when he felt blood running down his face. The majority seeks to cast the victim’s testimony that he “was sure he was assaulted by two individuals,” as unequivocal, however, this is incorrect. In fact, and as already noted, the victim said he could not see who assaulted him, and, moreover, he testified that it “could have *442been . . . that several people had hit [him], because that’s the way [he] felt.” Additionally, the testimony by one of the arresting officers that two witnesses at the scene identified defendant and Torres as the attackers does not rise to the level of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the two men were acting in concert or shared the requisite “mental culpability” for the harm done to the victim.
Morever, and as noted by the majority, the police did not recover any blades, razors or other sharp instruments from either defendant or the immediate area of the fight. The police also testified that they did not recover or analyze any of the broken glass from a shattered beer bottle on the sidewalk in front of the bar where the incident had occurred, or the pieces of broken glass scattered on the ground where defendant had been kicking the victim when the police arrived. Indeed, at trial the People called a doctor who testified regarding the injuries that the victim sustained. The doctor stated that the cuts were not consistent with someone falling onto broken glass or being struck with a fist, but rather, were consistent with being struck with a “sharp cutting instrument,” such as a “knife, a box cutter” or a “piece of glass if it . . . had the right edge.” Additionally, the People failed to put forth any evidence to suggest that defendant was aware that another attacker used a sharp object to cut the victim’s face, nor was there evidence of any connection between defendant and the other alleged attacker, Mr. Torres. Indeed, one of the arresting officers testified that he never even asked the victim who had cut him. Moreover, there was testimony that there were approximately 15 to 20 people on the sidewalk exiting the bar at the time of the incident.
Therefore, in assessing the legal sufficiency of the evidence, I would find that the evidence failed to establish beyond a reasonable doubt, directly or by inference circumstantially, that defendant carried a dangerous instrument, cut the victim’s face with it, or was aware that the other attacker intended to or was cutting the victim with such an instrument (see People v Campbell, 79 AD3d 624 [1st Dept 2010], lv denied 17 NY3d 793 [2011]; Matter of Paris M., 218 AD2d at 556; People v Rivera, 176 AD2d at 510-512).
However, defendant’s own actions supported a conviction for attempted second-degree assault, based on the theory that, “[w]ith intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he cause [d] such injury to such person” (Penal Law § 120.05 [1]). Accordingly, I would reduce the conviction to attempted assault in the second degree and reduce the sentence *443to time served, with 1½ years’ postrelease supervision (see People v Campbell, 79 AD3d at 624).