Opinion
September 27, 1990
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Peter McQuillan, J.).
Defendant, charged with murder in the second degree, was convicted, after jury trial, of the lesser offense of manslaughter in the first degree. At trial, defendant admitted stabbing Robert Bledsoe, his roommate, in an alleyway near the apartment they shared on Convent Avenue, but claimed that he was justified, as the deceased had thrice lunged at him with a knife, necessitating that defendant draw his own knife and stab the deceased in self-defense. However, credible evidence that defendant was the initial aggressor, that no second knife was recovered, that defendant could have retreated, that not one but three stabbing wounds were inflicted on the deceased, and that defendant discarded the murder weapon and fled, persuades us that the justification defense was disproved beyond a reasonable doubt. "Defendant's failure to retreat when he was able to do so, and the number of stab wounds sustained * * * negates the essential elements of the defense". (People v. Major, 116 A.D.2d 594, 595, lv denied 67 N.Y.2d 886.)
Concur — Kupferman, J.P., Sullivan, Carro and Smith, JJ.