Opinion
2013-12-10
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.
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 N.Y.3d 342, 348–349, 849 N.Y.S.2d 480, 880 N.E.2d 1 [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 N.Y.2d 664, 454 N.Y.S.2d 70, 439 N.E.2d 879 [1982], revg. on dissenting op. of Sandler, J., 86 A.D.2d 811, 814–815, 452 N.Y.S.2d 582 [1982] ).
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. TOM, J.P., FRIEDMAN, ACOSTA, MOSKOWITZ, GISCHE, JJ., concur.