People v Buie

People v Buie 2009 NY Slip Op 07947 [67 AD3d 432] November 5, 2009 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Rochelle Buie, Appellant.

—[*1] Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Peter Theis of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Christos G. Yatrakis of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert Stolz, J.), rendered September 24, 2007, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of attempted assault in the second degree and menacing in the second degree, and sentencing her to a term of six months, with five years' probation, unanimously affirmed.

The evidence was legally sufficient to establish that the liquid bleach defendant threw at the victim was a dangerous instrument (see Penal Law § 10.00 [10], [13]). Despite the absence of expert testimony, the jury could have reasonably concluded, from the victim's injuries, from the damage to a carpet and to the victim's clothing, and from its own knowledge and experience regarding the properties of bleach (see e.g. Havas v Victory Paper Stock Co., 49 NY2d 381, 386 [1980]), that the bleach was readily capable of causing serious injury such as disfiguring burns. Concur—Sweeny, J.P., Buckley, Catterson, Acosta and Freedman, JJ.