People v Bonilla

People v Bonilla 2008 NY Slip Op 04774 [51 AD3d 585] May 29, 2008 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Jason Bonilla, Appellant.

—[*1] Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York and Heller Ehrman LLP, New York (Gina M. Parlovecchio of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Patricia Curran of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (William A. Wetzel, J.), rendered March 13, 2006, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the second degree (two counts), reckless endangerment in the first degree and resisting arrest, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of seven years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly rejected defendant's request for a justification charge since there was no reasonable view of the evidence, viewed in a light most favorable to defendant, that would support such a charge (see People v Cox, 92 NY2d 1002 [1998]). Such a defense would have called upon the jury to speculate as to an alternative scenario that was not supported by any evidence. Neither the physical evidence nor any testimony supported such a view.

Defendant's challenge to the court's reasonable doubt charge is unpreserved and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. The court satisfied its obligation to instruct the jury that the People had the burden of proving defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and there was no mode of proceedings error exempt from preservation requirements (see People v Brown, 7 NY3d 880 [2006]; People v Agramonte, 87 NY2d 765, 769-770 [1996]; People v Thomas, 50 NY2d 467, 472 [1980]). Concur—Lippman, P.J., Tom, Gonzalez, Buckley and Renwick, JJ.