Opinion
December 9, 1991
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Goldstein, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
We reject the defendant's claim that the evidence was legally insufficient to disprove the defense of justification. The People's witnesses testified that the deceased dropped his "weapon", i.e., a rotted wooden stick, tried to move backwards, lost his balance and fell, hitting his head on a wall. The defendant then stabbed the deceased twice while he was unarmed and lying on his back. Thus, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution (see, People v Contes, 60 N.Y.2d 620), the jury could properly have found that the defendant could not have reasonably believed that the deceased was about to use deadly physical force against him and, consequently, that there was no justifiable basis for the defendant's resort to deadly physical force (see, People v Goetz, 68 N.Y.2d 96, 106-107; People v Henegan, 150 A.D.2d 606, 607; People v Martinez, 149 A.D.2d 438). Moreover, upon the exercise of our factual review power, we are satisfied that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see, CPL 470.15).
We have considered the defendant's remaining contention and find that it lacks merit. Thompson, J.P., Bracken, Sullivan and Lawrence, JJ., concur.