Opinion
12105 Ind. No. 1975/06 Case No. 2018-2297
10-20-2020
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Victor GONZALEZ, Defendant–Appellant.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Hunter Haney of counsel), and Milbank LLP, New York (Jeremy Butt of counsel), for appellant. Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Kyle R. Silverstein of counsel), for respondent.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Hunter Haney of counsel), and Milbank LLP, New York (Jeremy Butt of counsel), for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Kyle R. Silverstein of counsel), for respondent.
Kapnick, J.P., Singh, Kennedy, Mendez, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Alvin M. Yearwood, J.), rendered November 13, 2017, convicting defendant, after a nonjury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, failure to report a death or removing a body, and dissection of a body, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of 25 years, unanimously affirmed.
The 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 disproved defendant's justification defense beyond a reasonable doubt. Even if defendant was initially justified in hitting the victim in the head with a hammer, there was no justification for his continued use of deadly physical force, where, after chasing the victim into another room, defendant inflicted at least 10 hammer blows and 4 stab wounds to the victim's chest that punctured his heart and lung (see People v. Barreto, 70 A.D.3d 574, 895 N.Y.S.2d 92 [1st Dept. 2010], lv denied 15 N.Y.3d 772, 907 N.Y.S.2d 460, 933 N.E.2d 1053 [2010] ).
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.