73 A.D.2d 922 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1980
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Orange County, rendered December 9, 1977, convicting him of murder in the second degree and robbery in the first degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment affirmed. The main issue on this appeal is whether defendant’s statements to the police should have been suppressed as the product of an illegal arrest. On Friday, November 19, 1976, at about 7:30 p.m., defendant went to the Neighborhood Police Unit of the Newburgh Police Department. Without identifying himself, he stated to the officer on duty, Police Officer Foland, that earlier that day he had seen the "Williams boys” abduct an elderly man and his car and drive in the direction of Marlboro. Defendant further stated that later that day he saw the car on Chamber Street and Gidney Avenue, but he did not see the elderly man in the vehicle. The officer sent for a patrol car and defendant accompanied Officer Potter to Chamber Street and Gidney Avenue. When the car was spotted, defendant, a parolee, wishing to avoid trouble, exited the patrol car and departed. Officer Potter, having no reason to hold defendant, allowed him to go. Early the next morning, Saturday, November 20, 1976, the body of the owner of the car, one Dallas Picket, was discovered in a cemetery in the Town of Newburgh. He had been robbed and beaten. Detective Philip Ginquitti of the of the Newburgh Police Department, upon learning of the defendant’s identity, went to defendant’s residence accompanied by a State Police investigator. Defendant spoke to the police officers in