Opinion
14895, 4434/11
04-21-2015
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Stephen SAUNDERS, Defendant–Appellant.
Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Margaret E. Knight of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Brian R. Morrison of counsel), for respondent.
Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Margaret E. Knight of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Brian R. Morrison of counsel), for respondent.
ACOSTA, J.P., SAXE, RICHTER, GISCHE, KAPNICK, JJ.
Opinion Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Cassandra Mullen, J.), rendered May 22, 2012, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree and assault in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 3 ½ to 7 years, unanimously affirmed.Defendant's general objections failed to preserve his claim that the People introduced testimony that constituted uncharged crime evidence as well as hearsay (see People v. Tevaha, 84 N.Y.2d 879, 620 N.Y.S.2d 786, 644 N.E.2d 1342 [1994] ), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we find the argument unavailing. Defendant was charged with assaulting a hospital security officer during a dispute over defendant's attempt to see his wife, who was in a psychiatric emergency room. Evidence that the hospital staff had learned that defendant's wife did not wish to see defendant, whom she alleged to be the cause of her hospitalization, did not amount to evidence of a prior bad act (see People v. Hamilton, 73 A.D.3d 408, 899 N.Y.S.2d 605 [1st Dept.2010], lv. denied 15 N.Y.3d 774, 907 N.Y.S.2d 462, 933 N.E.2d 1055 [2012] ; People v. Flores, 210 A.D.2d 1, 2, 618 N.Y.S.2d 815 [1st Dept.1994], lv. denied 84 N.Y.2d 1031, 623 N.Y.S.2d 187, 647 N.E.2d 459 [1995] ).
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.