People v. JacksonPeople v. Jackson
On the night in question, defendant went over to the house of his ex-girlfriend (hereinafter the victim), purportedly to return some of the victim‘s things and talk. Based on allegations that included that defendant thereafter repeatedly struck the victim, covered her mouth and nose to constrict her breathing and, after the victim managed to lock him out of the house, kicked down the door, entered the home and hit her in the face, defendant was thereafter charged in a six-count indictment. Defendant was charged with burglary in the first degree, assault in the second degree, strangulation in the second degree, criminal contempt in the first degree, assault in the third degree and criminal mischief in the fourth degree. Defendant was convicted as charged following a jury trial. County Court thereafter sentenced defendant to a prison term of 15 years, plus five years of postrelease supervision, on his conviction of burglary in the first degree, a prison term of seven years, plus three years of postrelease supervision, on his conviction of assault in the second degree, a prison term of seven years, plus three years of postrelease supervision, on his conviction of strangulation in the second degree, a prison term of 1⅓ to 4 years on his conviction of criminal contempt in the first degree and one-year jail terms for each of his convictions of assault in the third degree and criminal mischief in the fourth degree. County Court ordered concurrent sentences on all but the criminal contempt in the first degree conviction, which was to run consecutively to the sentence imposed on the conviction of burglary in the first degree. Defendant appeals, and we affirm.
Defendant contends that the verdict is not supported by legally sufficient evidence and is against the weight of the evidence, arguing that the People failed to disprove that he was an invitee or failed to prove that he formed a contemporaneous intent to commit a crime at any time that he unlawfully entered or remained on the premises. Initially, defendant‘s challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence is unpreserved given that he presented evidence after his unsuccessful motion to dismiss and did not renew the motion at the close of proof (see People v Lane, 7 NY3d 888, 889 [2006]; People v Peterkin, 135 AD3d 1192, 1192 [2016]). Nonetheless, we necessarily review defendant‘s claims in our weight of the evidence review (see People v Peterkin, 135 AD3d at 1192; People v Speed, 134 AD3d 1235, 1235 [2015], lv denied 27 NY3d 1155 [2016]; People
Both the victim and defendant agreed that defendant did not reside at the victim‘s home. Although defendant may have initially been an invitee, the victim testified that over the course of the evening, defendant became increasingly upset and began to, among other things, repeatedly hit her. According to the victim, she eventually managed to lock defendant out of her house. The victim explained that defendant thereafter kicked in the locked door while calling her “a stupid bitch,” approached her, hit her in the face and then immediately left the home. Photographic evidence confirmed that the victim‘s door had been broken.
The victim‘s actions in locking defendant out of her home support the reasonable inference that defendant was no longer an invitee and that he knew that he was unlawfully entering the victim‘s home when he kicked down her door. Moreover, the inference that defendant entered the dwelling with the intention of assaulting the victim is readily inferable from the evidence of his violent conduct towards the victim preceding her locking him out of his home, his action in kicking down the door and the fact that he then entered the dwelling, hit the victim in the face and then immediately left the home. In addition, the jury was free to reject as incredible defendant‘s testimony, which largely focused on his contention that many of the victim‘s extensive wounds were self-inflicted. According deference to the jury‘s credibility determinations, the finding that defendant knowingly entered the victim‘s home unlawfully with the contemporaneous intent to commit a crime therein was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Hymes, 132 AD3d 1411, 1412 [2015], lv denied 26 NY3d 1146 [2016]; People v Sabines, 121 AD3d 1409, 1410-1411 [2014], lv denied 25 NY3d 1171 [2015]; People v Bethune, 65 AD3d 749, 752 [2009]).
Peters, P.J., Egan Jr., Devine and Mulvey, JJ., concur.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.