People v Jones

People v Jones 2013 NY Slip Op 00278 Decided on January 22, 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 January 22, 2013
Friedman, J.P., Renwick, Manzanet-Daniels, Román, Clark, JJ.
9033 2862/06 3640/06

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

v

Charlie Jones, Defendant-Appellant.




Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Jeffrey
Dellheim of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Ellen
Stanfield Friedman of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (William Wetzel, J.), rendered December 19, 2007, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of burglary in the first degree (four counts), robbery in the first degree (three counts) and attempted robbery in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of 50 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

There was no violation of defendant's right to be present at trial. After a thorough hearing, the court properly determined that defendant forfeited his right to be present by deliberately absenting himself from the proceedings (see People v Brooks, 75 NY2d 898, 899 [1990]; People v Sanchez, 65 NY2d 436, 443-444 [1985]). The record unequivocally establishes that defendant, a chronic malingerer, deliberately caused his own absence (see People v Cooks, 28 AD3d 362 [2006], lv denied 7 NY3d 787 [2006]), and that regardless of whether defendant's alleged overdose of medication was feigned or actual, defendant intended to absent himself from the balance of his ongoing trial. Accordingly, the
court was entitled to continue the trial in defendant's absence.

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

ENTERED: JANUARY 22, 2013

CLERK