Opinion
13154 & M–395 Ind. No. 4753/13 Case No. 2016-378
03-30-2021
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Kazzim COOPER, Defendant–Appellant.
Janet E. Sabel, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Angie Louie of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Patricia Curran of counsel), for respondent.
Janet E. Sabel, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Angie Louie of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Patricia Curran of counsel), for respondent.
Renwick, J.P., Kern, Singh, Shulman, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert M. Stolz, J.), rendered August 14, 2015, convicting defendant, after a nonjury trial, of assault in the first and second degrees, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of six years, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant's legal sufficiency claims regarding the element of serious physical injury are unpreserved and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject them on the merits. We also find that the court's verdict 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] ). The evidence supports the conclusion that the victim's comminuted skull fracture caused a protracted impairment of his health. The fracture had significant and lasting effects, some of which persisted at the time of the trial. Moreover, "nothing in the statute limits ‘protracted’ impairments to those that are permanent or measured in years" ( People v. Wilkins, 138 A.D.3d 581, 581, 28 N.Y.S.3d 609 [1st Dept. 2016], lv denied 27 N.Y.3d 1141, 39 N.Y.S.3d 123, 61 N.E.3d 522 [2016] ). The evidence also supports the conclusion that the injury to the victim's ear constituted a serious and permanent disfigurement.
Motion to strike appellant's brief, or alternatively, to file pro se supplemental brief denied.