THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v HERMAN ROBINSON, Appellant.
Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York
151 AD3d 1123 | 67 NYS3d 709
Egan Jr., J.P. Appeals (1) from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Coccoma, J.), rendered May 28, 2015 in Schenectady County, convicting defendant following a nonjury trial of the crimes of murder in the second degree, predatory sexual assault against a child, course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, rape in the first degree (two counts), rape in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child, and (2) from a judgment of said court, rendered October 5, 2016 in Schenectady County, which dismissed the count of course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree and resentenced defendant.
On December 10, 2013, the City of Schenectady Police Department responded to a possible suicide attempt at a residence in the City of Schenectady, Schenectady County. Upon arrival, police spoke with defendant’s girlfriend, who resided at the subject address, and obtained her permission to enter the residence to search for defendant, whom she believed intended to harm himself. During the ensuing search of the residence, police discovered a notebook with an apparent handwritten suicide note and, thereafter, discovered defendant unresponsive in a vehicle in the rear yard of the residence. Upon a further search of the residence, an officer read the suicide note in its entirety, wherein defendant indicated that he had been raping and sexually abusing the victim for six years, that he had impregnated her and subsequently killed the baby. As part of the ensuing investigation, police obtained a statement from the victim—then 18 years of age and attending college—wherein
Defendant was thereafter indicted and charged with murder in the second degree, predatory sexual assault against a child, course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, rape in the first degree (two counts), rape in the second degree, criminal sexual act against a child and endangering the welfare of a child. Defendant’s motions challenging the grand jury proceedings as procedurally defective and seeking suppression of his statement made to law enforcement while in the hospital were both subsequently denied. The action was thereafter removed from County Court to Supreme Court.1 Following a nonjury trial, Supreme Court found defendant guilty of murder in the second degree, predatory sexual assault against a child, course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, rape in the first degree (two counts), rape in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child. Defendant was thereafter sentenced, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate prison term of 100 years to life. Supreme Court subsequently granted defendant’s CPL article 440 motion and vacated the sentence initially imposed inasmuch as defendant had been improperly sentenced as a second felony offender. Defendant was then resentenced and again received an aggregate prison term of 100 years to life.2 Defendant now appeals.
Defendant contends that the verdict was not supported by legally sufficient evidence and was against the weight of the evidence. When considering a challenge to the legal sufficiency of the evidence, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the People and evaluate 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] [citation omitted]; see People v Ramos, 19 NY3d 133, 136 [2012]; People v Warrington, 146 AD3d 1233, 1235 [2017], lv denied 29 NY3d 1038 [2017]). Moreover, in assessing the weight of the evidence, where, as here, a different verdict would not have been unreasonable, this Court “must, like the trier of fact below, weigh the relative probative force of conflicting testimony and the relative strength of conflicting inferences that may be drawn from the testimony” (People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d at 495 [internal quotation marks and citation omitted]; see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348 [2007]).
Defendant initially contends that his conviction for predatory sexual assault against a child was not supported by legally sufficient evidence because there was insufficient evidence establishing that the victim was less than 13 years old at the time the alleged sexual conduct occurred. As relevant here, to establish a conviction for predatory sexual assault against a child, the People were required to prove that defendant, being more than 18 years old and “over a period of time not less than three months in duration [,] . . . engage [d] in two or more acts of sexual conduct, which include [d] at least one act of sexual intercourse [or] oral sexual conduct” with a child under age 13 (
Defendant also contends that the verdict as to counts 4 and 5 of the indictment charging him with rape in the first degree was not supported by legally sufficient evidence and was against the weight of the evidence based upon insufficient proof being adduced as to forcible compulsion. Although defendant failed to preserve the legal sufficiency argument with respect to count 5, “our weight of the evidence review necessarily involves an evaluation of whether all elements of the charged crime [s] were proven beyond a reasonable doubt at trial” (People v Lancaster, 143 AD3d 1046, 1047 [2016] [internal quotation marks and citation omitted], lv denied 28 NY3d 1147 [2017]). As relevant here, “[a] person is guilty of rape in the first degree when he or she engages in sexual intercourse with another person . . . [b]y forcible compulsion” (
Here, the victim testified that, prior to defendant’s sexual abuse, they shared a “normal father-daughter relationship,” but, beginning while the family lived on Pleasant Street, defendant began using sexual abuse as a punishment against the victim.5 The victim recounted that if she did not perform sexual acts on defendant, he would beat her “like [she] was his size.”
Next, we find without merit defendant’s claim that the verdict as to count 1, murder in the second degree, was legally insufficient because the People did not establish that the victim gave birth to a baby. Although no body was ever discovered, the victim testified that she gave birth to a baby girl, in the bedroom of her apartment, on March 11, 2010. She testified that, as she was giving birth, defendant proceeded to pull the baby the rest of the way out of her body and then placed the baby on the floor. The victim specifically testified that she heard the baby cry and saw the baby’s hands open and close, her arms move and the baby’s stomach rise and fall from taking breaths. The victim testified that she then observed defendant “slam[ ] the baby’s head on the floor” twice. The victim testified that defendant then briefly left the room whereupon she picked up the baby and observed the baby’s stomach moving for a few seconds before it ultimately stopped. The victim testified that defendant then came back into the room and “picked up the afterbirth, [her] sweatpants and the baby and placed [all of] it
Further, viewing the evidence in a neutral light and according deference to Supreme Court’s credibility determinations, we find that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d at 495). While the victim’s initial statement to police and testimony before the grand jury with regard to her age at the time that defendant started to sexually abuse her, as well as her observations of the baby at the time she gave birth, were at times conflicting or inconsistent with her trial testimony, these inconsistencies were fully developed at trial and Supreme Court, as the trier of fact in this nonjury trial, had the opportunity to hear the victim’s explanations, observe her demeanor and make its own credibility determinations with regard to the testimony provided. Moreover, Supreme Court clearly credited the victim’s testimony and her version of the events as they unfolded over the course of the nearly seven years that she was sexually abused.8
Defendant next contends that Supreme Court erred in not suppressing his suicide note inasmuch as it was obtained in violation of his constitutional rights against unlawful searches and seizures. Specifically, defendant contends that any consent that his girlfriend may have initially given to police to search the subject residence to locate defendant effectively expired when the police located defendant unresponsive in his vehicle.
Here, on the morning in question, defendant’s girlfriend called defendant from her place of employment and became alarmed after he indicated, with slurred speech, that he had taken medication and subsequently became unresponsive while on the telephone. She then asked her supervisor to call 911, and a coworker drove her home. The police arrived at the residence to find the girlfriend on the front porch where she informed them that she resided with defendant, believed he was attempting to commit suicide and that she did not have keys on her person to enter the residence. The police then proceeded to ram open the front door and entered to find no one present, but an apparent suicide note lying on a bed.9 Continuing out to the rear yard, the police discovered defendant lying unresponsive inside of an automobile. Paramedics who soon arrived requested that the police go back into the residence in order to locate any substances that he might have ingested and, in the course of doing so, police again viewed and ultimately seized the suicide note. As the paramedics were leaving to bring defendant to the hospital, defendant’s girlfriend, desiring to go with them, gave a police officer the keys to the residence and, again, gave them permission to search it.
The initial police entry into the residence, therefore, was made with the express consent of defendant’s girlfriend, a person with “apparent authority to consent to the search of the shared premises” (People v Gray, 152 AD3d at 1070). Despite defendant’s assertion to the contrary, the temporal scope of her
Next, we find unavailing defendant’s contention that the statement that he provided to police while in the intensive care unit of the hospital should have been suppressed because he did not knowingly and voluntary waive his Miranda rights. It was the People’s burden to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that defendant’s statement to police was voluntarily entered into and “that any custodial interrogation was preceded by the administration and defendant’s knowing waiver of his Miranda rights” (People v Muller, 155 AD3d 1091, 1092 [2017] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]). The voluntariness of a statement provided to law enforcement following administration of defendant’s Miranda warnings is determined by examining the totality of the circumstances under which it was obtained (see People v Steigler, 152 AD3d 1083, 1083 [2017], lv denied 30 NY3d 983 [2017]; People v Sabines, 121 AD3d 1409, 1411 [2014], lv denied 25 NY3d 1171 [2015]), and deference is given to the credibility determinations and factual findings made by the suppression court (see People v Neal, 133 AD3d 920, 922 [2015], lv denied 26 NY3d 1110 [2016]; People v Mattis, 108 AD3d 872, 874 [2013], lv denied 22 NY3d 957 [2013]).
At the suppression hearing, officer Joseph McCabe testified that he and another detective interviewed defendant in his room in the intensive care unit of the hospital at approximately 1:30 p.m. on the afternoon of December 13, 2013. McCabe testified that he spoke with a doctor and nurse prior to interviewing defendant and was aware that defendant had been taken out of a medically induced coma the previous day. McCabe testified that, upon entering defendant’s hospital room, he introduced himself, indicated to defendant that he wanted to
In response to McCabe’s and the other officer’s questions, defendant provided detailed information about, among other things, his upbringing and childhood and his concerns over the victim’s behavior while she was away at college and provided a detailed and coherent time line of his activities on the morning leading up to his attempted suicide. Notably, defendant indicated his awareness of his Miranda rights by ultimately deciding to invoke his right to counsel, at which point the police terminated the interview. While there was medical evidence presented at the hearing indicating that defendant had been provided certain pain medication prior to the officers’ interview and he had been agitated, combative and disoriented at certain other times during his hospital stay, the record reveals that, at the time that the officers conducted the subject interview, defendant was alert, responsive and otherwise showed no signs that his physical or mental condition was impaired to the extent that his ability to make a decision whether to speak with the officers was undermined (see People v Balram, 47 AD3d 1014, 1014-1015 [2008], lv denied 10 NY3d 859 [2008]; People v Thompson, 34 AD3d 931, 932-933 [2006], lv denied 7 NY3d 929 [2006]; People v May, 263 AD2d 215, 219 [2000], lv denied 94 NY2d 950 [2000]). Accordingly, we find no basis to disturb the suppression court’s determination that defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived his Miranda rights and that his statements were voluntary.
Lastly, we find without merit defendant’s contention that the sentence imposed was harsh and excessive. Contrary to defendant’s assertion, given the duration of the sexual abuse at issue, the horrific nature of the acts committed, defendant’s criminal history and his complete lack of remorse for the crimes committed, we discern nothing in the record indicating that Supreme Court sought to punish defendant for exercising his
Rose, Devine, Mulvey and Rumsey, JJ., concur. Ordered that the judgments are affirmed.