Lead Opinion
OPINION OF THE COURT
In this appeal, we conclude that there was legally sufficient evidence to support the jury’s findings that defendant’s assault of the victim during a home invasion was an actual contributory cause of the victim’s death and that the victim’s death, induced by the stress of the violent event, was a reasonably
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The victim was found dead on the floor of his second-floor apartment, lying amongst the remnants of his broken coffee table, two days after he was assaulted during a robbery-burglary of his home. Photographs of the scene depicted blood spatter in the living room and blood smeared on the couch, wholly consistent with a violent assault, as well as the victim’s body lying among the evidence of a violent encounter. Subsequent investigation revealed the involvement of defendant and his two accomplices, Teara Fatico and Chasity Wilson. Both Fatico and Wilson were indicted and pleaded guilty. Fatico, who pleaded guilty to attempted burglary, testified at trial as an accomplice as a matter of law. The evidence at trial was as follows.
On August 21, 2011, the victim sent Fatico a private Face-book message to which defendant, Fatico’s then boyfriend, responded on her behalf. In that message, defendant, acting as Fatico, informed the victim that she and Wilson would be coming over to his apartment. The three planned for Fatico and Wilson to go to the victim’s apartment and determine if it contained valuables and drugs to steal. That night, defendant drove Fatico and Wilson to the victim’s apartment complex, which was equipped with a secure front door and an electronic surveillance system.
Inside the victim’s apartment, Fatico, Wilson, and the victim smoked marijuana. As corroborated by cell phone records, Fatico maintained phone contact with defendant while she was with the victim. Fatico and Wilson left the victim’s apartment to meet up with defendant. After the two accomplices told defendant that the victim had jars of marijuana in his apartment, the threesome moved to the next stage of the plan to rob
Approximately 15 minutes later, Fatico left the victim’s apartment, went downstairs, and let defendant, who is depicted on video wearing a white T-shirt draped over his head to shield his face from the surveillance cameras, into the building.
When defendant returned to the car, he was carrying the white garbage bag. The trio drove to Fatico’s house where defendant revealed that the white bag contained jars of marijuana, which Fatico recognized as being from the victim’s apartment. Defendant claimed that the victim told him to “just take it and go.” The victim’s body was discovered in the apartment two days later, when a family member, unable to make contact with the victim, notified the apartment building’s maintenance supervisor.
Defendant was indicted for two counts of murder in the second degree (felony murder) (Penal Law § 125.25 [3]), and one count each of burglary in the first degree (Penal Law § 140.30 [2]) and robbery in the first degree (Penal Law § 160.15 [1]).
At trial, the Chief Medical Examiner of the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office, who did not herself prepare the autopsy report, testified with respect to the autopsy findings as to the victim’s injuries and cause of death. The autopsy revealed that the victim’s physical injuries included: lacera
The jury convicted defendant as charged. The Appellate Division unanimously modified, on the law, by reversing defendant’s convictions for murder in the second degree and dismissing those counts of the indictment (126 AD3d 1516 [4th Dept 2015]). The Court held “that the People failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it was reasonably foreseeable that defendant’s actions, i.e., unlawfully entering the victim’s apartment and assaulting him, would cause the victim’s death” (id. at 1517). The Court opined that, despite the Medical Examiner’s testimony that defendant caused the victim’s death, she “did not testify that defendant’s culpable act was a direct cause of the death or that the fatal result was reasonably foreseeable,” and, thus, the evidence was legally insufficient (id.). The judgment was otherwise affirmed, with the Court determining that “[t]he accomplice’s testimony was amply corroborated by, inter alia, a surveillance video from a camera inside the victim’s apartment building and telephone records showing numerous cell phone calls between defendant and the accomplice shortly before and immediately after the crimes were
A Judge of this Court granted both the People and defendant leave to appeal (26 NY3d 966 [2015]).
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The primary issue in this appeal is whether legally sufficient evidence supported defendant’s felony murder convictions. We therefore view “the facts in a light most favorable to the People” to determine whether “ ‘there is a valid line of reasoning and permissible inferences from which a rational jury could have found the elements of the crime proved beyond a reasonable doubt’ ” (People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 349 [2007] [citations omitted]).
We agree with the People that the evidence at trial was sufficient to support defendant’s convictions.
A.
With respect to felony murder in the second degree, the People were required to prove that, in the course of committing robbery and burglary, defendant caused the death of the victim (see Penal Law § 125.25 [3]), i.e., that defendant’s conduct was “a sufficiently direct cause” of the victim’s death (see People v Matos, 83 NY2d 509, 511 [1994]). Sufficiently direct causation is established by proof of the following: (1) that defendant’s actions were “an actual contributory cause of [the] death, in the sense that they ‘forged a link in the chain of causes which actually brought about the death’ ” (Matter of Anthony M., 63 NY2d 270, 280 [1984], quoting People v Stewart, 40 NY2d 692, 697 [1976]); and (2) that “the fatal result was reasonably foreseeable” (People v Hernandez, 82 NY2d 309, 314 [1993]). Here, the jury was properly instructed on the law as to the two-pronged standard to establish causation.
With respect to defendant’s actions being “an actual contributory cause of [the] death,” we have explained that so long as “the necessary causative link is established, other causes, such as a victim’s preexisting condition, will not relieve the defendant of responsibility for homicide” (see Anthony M., 63 NY2d at 280). In Matter of Anthony M., the defendant grabbed the handbag of an elderly victim with a history of heart-related illness, causing the victim to fall to the ground (see id. at 276). The victim was hospitalized with a fractured hip and other injuries; she died of a myocardial infarction approximately 10
In the companion case People v Cable, two defendants robbed an 89-year-old victim and his wife in their Manhattan apartment (see id.). The victim died of a myocardial infarction two days later (see id. at 278). At trial, the experts disagreed as to when the myocardial infarction occurred, but one medical examiner opined that “the emotional and physical trauma of the burglary caused [the victim’s] heart attack” (id. at 279). With respect to both cases, we held that the jury was entitled to accept the expert testimony and find that causation had been established, noting that “the testimony of the medical expert [s] that there was a causal link [was not] so baseless or riddled with contradiction that it was unworthy of belief as a matter of law” (see id. at 281; see People v Ingram, 67 NY2d 897, 899 [1986] [concluding that medical expert’s testimony that the victim “died of (a) myocardial infarction precipitated by the stress of finding a burglar in his home . . . was sufficient under applicable legal standards”]).
Here, the Medical Examiner’s testimony, in conjunction with the crime scene evidence, established a sufficient causal connection between defendant’s infliction of blunt force trauma injuries during the violent home invasion and the victim’s death. Specifically, the Medical Examiner testified that “[s] tress of any kind can hasten a person’s demise by cardiovascular disease” and that, here, the stress caused by the injuries inflicted by defendant, “given [the victim’s] underlying heart disease!,] led to his death.” That testimony, along with the crime scene evidence that defendant’s beating of the victim was severe and immediate in its consequences, “was sufficient to prove that defendant’s conduct ‘set in motion and legally caused the death’ of” the victim (People v DaCosta, 6 NY3d 181, 185 [2006], quoting Matos, 83 NY2d at 511). Thus, the jury could have reasonably concluded that defendant’s conduct was an actual contributory cause of the victim’s death.
With respect to foreseeability of the death, the People must prove “that the ultimate harm is something which should have been foreseen as being reasonably related to the acts of the accused” (People v Kibbe, 35 NY2d 407, 412 [1974], citing 1 Wharton, Criminal Law Procedure § 169). In this case, defend
Defendant’s argument to the contrary disregards the controlling law and blurs the distinction between the “cause of death” and “manner of death.” As the Medical Examiner testified, the cause of death, based on the autopsy of the body, was “Hypertensive Cardiovascular Disease,” but the manner of death, derived from the facts and circumstances surrounding the death, was listed on the report as “Undetermined.”
B.
Defendant also argues that the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions for burglary in the first, degree and robbery in the first degree because the only evidence to support those convictions was Fatico’s accomplice testimony. Pursuant to CPL 60.22 (1), “[a] defendant may not be convicted of any offense upon the testimony of an accomplice unsupported by corroborative evidence tending to connect the defendant with the commission of such offense.” However,
*303 “ ‘[t]he corroborative evidence need not show the commission of the crime; it need not show that defendant was connected with the commission of the crime. It is enough if it tends to connect the defendant with the commission of the crime in such a way as may reasonably satisfy the jury that the accomplice is telling the truth’ ” (People v Reome, 15 NY3d 188, 191-192 [2010], quoting People v Dixon, 231 NY 111, 116 [1921]).
Here, the video clips depicting a man who physically resembled defendant and the detailed phone records of all three accomplices “ ‘so harmonize[d] with the accomplice’s narrative as to have a tendency to furnish the necessary connection between defendant and the crime’ ” (id. at 194, quoting Dixon, 231 NY at 116-117).
Defendant’s remaining contentions regarding the sufficiency of the evidence to support his convictions are without merit.
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Finally, defendant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion to preclude further use of the DVD of video clips culled from the building’s surveillance system at trial. The authenticating witness, who maintained the surveillance system, testified that during the computerized process of compressing and archiving the digital video files, certain images may overlap. However, he further testified that the process, which he personally conducted, does not conjure up persons that were not originally present in the camera shot. As such, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the image-overlap issue went to weight, but not admissibility, of the video evidence (see People v Patterson, 93 NY2d 80, 84 [1999]).
Accordingly, the order of the Appellate Division should be modified in accordance with this opinion, the case remitted to that Court for consideration of the facts, and, as so modified, affirmed.
. The external door of the victim’s apartment building was unlocked. That door only allowed entry into a vestibule where a second, locked front door had to be accessed to gain entry into the building.
. Surveillance footage shows defendant, clad in the white T-shirt, entering the vestibule of the building and unsuccessfully attempting to open the second, locked door, before using his cell phone to text Fatico and inform her that the door was locked, preventing his entry.
. Notably, both the County Law and the New York City Charter provide medical examiners with the authority to conduct additional investigation or examination “to determine the means or manner of death” (County Law § 674 [3] [a]; see NY City Charter § 557 [f| [3]). To the extent such additional investigation was ever conducted by the Medical Examiner in this case, the facts derived therefrom would not supplant the admissible evidence at trial as to the facts and circumstances surrounding the victim’s death. The jury, of course, must find the reasonable foreseeability of the death on that trial evidence alone.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting in part). Defendant was convicted for the death of a 41-year-old, well-developed male who was six feet, one inch, weighed 270 pounds, and suffered from hypertensive cardiovascular disease, on the theory that the injuries suffered during a struggle with the defendant precipitated the victim’s death from heart disease. To establish defendant’s
According to the trial evidence, during a struggle with defendant, the victim suffered a broken jaw and nose, as well as several lacerations to his face. Though there was a significant loss of blood, the victim did not suffer any internal trauma to his head, neck, or torso, and the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy characterized the injuries, either individually or combined, as “not significant enough to cause or contribute to death.” The cause of death was identified as hypertensive cardiovascular disease, of which obesity was a contributing factor. The People submitted testimony from a medical examiner who did not conduct the autopsy, who opined that the injuries did not cause the victim’s death but that the stress associated with the injuries “given [the victim’s] underlying heart disease led to his death.” In other words, the struggle-induced stress combined with the victim’s obesity and preexisting heart condition led to the victim’s death.
Prior cases in which the Court determined that a victim’s death was foreseeable involved a defendant’s direct causative action that put the victim at obvious risk of death—conduct not present in defendant’s case. For example, in Hernandez, an armed defendant confronted a team of officers as he tried to escape a failed robbery (82 NY2d at 312). When he refused to surrender and moved towards the officers, gun drawn, they opened fire and one officer was fatally shot in the head (id.). Remarking on the codefendant’s culpability for the officer’s death, the Court stated that “it [was] simply implausible for defendants to claim that defendants could not have foreseen a bullet going astray when [the defendant] provoked a gun battle outside a residential building in an urban area” (id. at 319). In People v Matos (83 NY2d 509, 511 [1994]), a police officer suffered fatal injuries after being trapped in a rooftop air shaft while chasing the defendant as he tried to escape capture from
In these cases, viewing the facts in context, an obvious result of defendants’ criminal behavior was to place the victims at risk of death. In Hernandez, it was foreseeable that defendant’s act of confronting the officers with a loaded weapon would lead to a gunfight, and in no way surprising that someone might be killed in the cross fire. In Matos, it was foreseeable that the officer would die during a nighttime rooftop chase initiated by defendant’s attempted escape. Certainly, in Kibbe, the victim’s death was reasonably foreseeable when defendants abandoned him at night on a highway in a physically vulnerable state.
Here, however, it is not foreseeable that a 41 year old who appears overweight but was sufficiently able to engage his attacker would die as a result of the struggle where the injuries from the assault were a broken jaw and nose, lacerations and bruises. The autopsy report states that these injuries themselves are not the type that would cause or contribute to death. Accordingly, without the required foreseeability, defendant’s felony murder conviction should not stand.
Order modified in accordance with the opinion herein, case remitted to the Appellate Division, Fourth Department, for consideration of the facts and, as so modified, affirmed.
The Court has previously addressed causation in the felony murder context of heart attacks in Anthony M. (63 NY2d at 281), but that case is not dispositive here. The Court in Anthony M. focused exclusively on whether the defendants’ actions were a contributing factor to the heart attack deaths such that the acts were a sufficiently direct cause of death (id.; see also Hernandez, 82 NY2d at 314). The Court did not address foreseeability. Regardless, Anthony M. and its companion case are distinguishable because they involved elderly victims, ages 83 and 89 respectively, who died of heart attacks after defendants’ assaults (id. at 276-277). The facts there are not comparable to a physical struggle wherein a 41-year-old victim suffers a broken jaw and nose, and dies of heart disease.
