People v Mercado

People v Mercado 2013 NY Slip Op 08203 Decided on December 10, 2013 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 December 10, 2013
Tom, J.P., Friedman, Acosta, Moskowitz, Gische, JJ.
11289 6043/08

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

v

Jason Mercado, Defendant-Appellant.




Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York
(Bruce D. Austern of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Yuval
Simchi-Levi of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Jill Konviser, J.), rendered June 6, 2011, as amended October 4, 2011, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 19 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was supported by legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing the jury's credibility determinations.

The court properly charged manslaughter in the first degree as a lesser included offense of murder in the second degree since there was a reasonable view of the evidence that defendant
intended to cause serious physical injury as opposed to death (see People v Butler, 57 NY2d 664 [1982], revg on dissenting op of Sandler, J., 86 AD2d 811, 814-815 [1982]).

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.

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

ENTERED: DECEMBER 10, 2013

CLERK