Opinion
December 26, 1989
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Fertig, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant was charged, inter alia, with an assault which resulted in serious and permanent injury to the hand of Norman McLean, Sr. Evidence adduced at trial demonstrates that sometime prior to the instant incident McLean and the defendant had an altercation and that, immediately prior to the incident, McLean had been involved in a physical struggle with the defendant's son. At trial, the defendant attempted to establish the defense of justification (see, Penal Law § 35.15). During the course of his direct examination, the defendant unsuccessfully attempted to testify as to what certain third parties had told him concerning McLean's violent propensities. On appeal, he argues that it was reversible error for the court to deny him the opportunity to present this evidence to the jury.
While we agree that evidence concerning the impact on the defendant's state of mind of his knowledge of McLean's general reputation for violence and prior violent acts was relevant (see, e.g., People v Miller, 39 N.Y.2d 543; People v White, 73 A.D.2d 865), exclusion of the proffered testimony does not warrant reversal. The defendant was permitted to testify about McLean's prior acts of violence against him and their effects, and there was considerable testimony concerning McLean's conduct immediately prior to the defendant's striking at him with a machete. The proffered testimony would merely have been cumulative (see, People v Rivera, 101 A.D.2d 981, affd 65 N.Y.2d 661) and since there is no significant probability that the jury would have acquitted the defendant if the testimony had been allowed, any error in excluding it was harmless (see, People v Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230, 242; see also, People v Felton, 133 A.D.2d 232). Brown, J.P., Kunzeman, Harwood and Rosenblatt, JJ., concur.