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People v. Baker

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department
Feb 7, 2001
280 A.D.2d 964 (N.Y. App. Div. 2001)

Opinion

February 7, 2001.

Appeal from Judgment of Monroe County Court, Bristol, J. — Attempted Murder, 2nd Degree.

Pigott, Jr., P. J., Pine, Hurlbutt, Kehoe and Lawton, JJ.


Judgment unanimously affirmed.

Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him of attempted murder in the second degree (Penal Law § 110.00, 125.25) and other crimes. Contrary to defendant's contention, reversal is not required as the result of any evidentiary error. References to the shared nationality of defendant and the victim were isolated and not part of a pattern of inflammatory references to race or appeals to racial prejudice ( see, People v. Dominguez, 275 A.D.2d 468; People v. Vargas, 161 A.D.2d 822; see also, People v. Glenn, 185 A.D.2d 84, 90-91, cert denied 520 U.S. 1108). Moreover, although a police officer testified that the car apparently abandoned by the shooter was found in front of a "drug" house, there was no proof linking defendant to that drug house, and thus the fact that the car was found there was no more than happenstance. The challenged evidence therefore did not establish an uncharged crime and did not prejudice defendant.

County Court's substitution of the word "defendant" for the word "perpetrator" in the charge on identification does not require reversal ( see, People v. West, 159 A.D.2d 378, lv denied 76 N.Y.2d 744; People v. Bennett, 144 A.D.2d 564, 565, lv denied 73 N.Y.2d 889; People v. Willis, 140 A.D.2d 394, 394-395, lv denied 72 N.Y.2d 963). The court immediately corrected the error, which even defendant's trial and appellate counsel characterize as "inadvertent" and "unintended," and the identification charge was otherwise unobjectionable.


Summaries of

People v. Baker

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department
Feb 7, 2001
280 A.D.2d 964 (N.Y. App. Div. 2001)
Case details for

People v. Baker

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, RESPONDENT, v. DEPHEN BAKER, APPELLANT

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department

Date published: Feb 7, 2001

Citations

280 A.D.2d 964 (N.Y. App. Div. 2001)
720 N.Y.S.2d 875

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