Opinion
570254/06.
Decided October 21, 2008.
Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (A. Kirke Bartley, Jr., J.), rendered January 3, 2006, after a jury trial, convicting him of reckless endangerment in the second degree and leaving the scene of an accident, and imposing sentence.
PRESENT: DAVIS, J.P., SCHOENFELD, HEITLER, JJ.
Judgment of conviction (A. Kirke Bartley, Jr., J.), rendered January 3, 2006, affirmed.
The trial court properly admitted, as excited utterances, statements made by a nontestifying cab driver to police indicating that he had just witnessed a hit-and-run accident involving a pedestrian and was pursuing the fleeing vehicle, a white Jeep still in view that was driven by defendant. The hearing evidence supported the conclusion that the hit-and-run accident had occurred within the previous 15 minutes at a location approximately 20 blocks away and that the declarant, who was then attempting to give chase, was still under the influence of the stress of the incident ( see People v Johnson, 1 NY3d 302; People v Sykes , 26 AD3d 203 ; lv denied 7 NY3d 795). The admission of the excited utterances did not violate defendant's right to confrontation, since the statements were volunteered, rather than elicited through structured police questioning ( see People v Paul , 25 AD3d 165 , lv denied 6 NY3d 757), and were made to "enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency" ( Davis v Washington, 547 US 813, 822; see also People v Nieves-Andino , 9 NY3d 12 , 15-16). We have considered and rejected defendant's jurisdictional argument.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.