Summary
In People v Snyder (73 N.Y.2d 900 [1989]), we held that where the defendant kept a gun overnight after acquiring it in a bar fight instead of turning it over immediately, the defense was not applicable.
Summary of this case from People v. DebellisOpinion
Argued January 10, 1989
Decided February 9, 1989
Appeal from the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Third Judicial Department, Dan Lamont, J.
Salvatore D. Ferlazzo, Stephen R. Coffey and Thomas J. DiNovo for appellants.
Michael A. West, District Attorney (Kent J. Gebert of counsel), for respondent.
MEMORANDUM.
The orders of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.
We agree with the Appellate Division that there was no reasonable view of the evidence under which the jury could have found defendants' possession of the weapon to be innocent. Accordingly, defendants were not entitled to the instructions for temporary lawful possession and cannot now complain about the substance of the court's charge to the jury.
Defendants, two brothers, wrested a loaded pistol from Bruce Van Allen while assaulting him during an altercation outside a bar. They then walked to their nearby home and discussed what to do with the gun. After considering throwing it in a river, burying it, or placing it in a mailbox, they decided to put off the disposition of the gun until the next day. Defendants made no effort to report the incident to the State Police, notwithstanding that the barracks were around the corner from the bar and that the police were at the scene when defendants returned there one-half hour later. Indeed, Wayne Snyder had removed the clip from the gun and placed it under his bed, where it remained until it was retrieved the next morning by the State Police. This evidence is "utterly at odds with [defendants'] claim of innocent possession" (People v Williams, 50 N.Y.2d 1043, 1045) "temporarily and incidentally [resulting] from * * * disarming a wrongful possessor" (People v Persce, 204 N.Y. 397, 402).
Chief Judge WACHTLER and Judges SIMONS, KAYE, ALEXANDER, TITONE, HANCOCK, JR., and BELLACOSA concur.
Orders affirmed in a memorandum.