People v Munnerlyn

People v Munnerlyn 2012 NY Slip Op 01113 Decided on February 14, 2012 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided on February 14, 2012
Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe, Moskowitz, Freedman, Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.
6786 4655/07

[*1]The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

v

Rodney Munnerlyn, Defendant-Appellant.




Bernard V. Kleinman, White Plains, for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Deborah L.
Morse of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Gregory Carro, J.), rendered March 9, 2009, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of two counts each of robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of 15 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court providently exercised its discretion in denying defendant's request to present expert testimony on eyewitness identification. The threshold inquiry in considering such an application is "deciding whether the case turns on the accuracy of eyewitness identifications and there is little or no corroborating evidence connecting the defendant to the crime" (People v Santiago, 17 NY3d 661, 669 [2011]). Here, there were two strong eyewitness identifications, as well as many items of
circumstantial evidence that, when viewed as a whole, provided substantial corroboration.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER
OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.

ENTERED: FEBRUARY 14, 2012

CLERK