Opinion
May 30, 1996
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Bronx County, Ira Globerman, J.
At trial, a telephone answering tape was admitted into evidence, allegedly as a conversation between the complainant and the defendant. The defendant contended that it was not his voice on the tape and requested that it be tested. The court denied the application, and on appeal, this Court held the appeal in abeyance and remanded for a spectrograph voice identification hearing ( 209 A.D.2d 354).
The tape was analyzed by an expert procured by the defendant. The expert reported that the voice on the tape was that of defendant, but that the speech patterns offer a defense that defendant was not confessing to the crime. The defendant, having testified at the trial that it was not his voice on the tape, contends that since it is his voice, and that if he had known the expert's opinion regarding speech patterns at the time of trial, he would have fashioned his defense differently and, therefore, that he was ineffectively represented at trial. In effect, the defendant is requesting a new trial, which would give him a chance to test a new defense in which he will not testify but will admit that it was his voice on the tape and argue he was not confessing to the rape. The jury has heard and already assessed the meaning of the taped conversation. We find this argument and the other arguments presented by the defendant meritless.
Concur — Murphy, P.J., Ellerin, Wallach and Kupferman, JJ.