Opinion
06-14-2016
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Lynette ACEVEDO, Defendant–Appellant.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Carl Kaplan of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Philip Morrow of counsel), for respondent.
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Carl Kaplan of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Philip Morrow of counsel), for respondent.
Opinion Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bruce Allen, J.), rendered January 4, 2013, as amended March 15, 2013, December 15, 2014 and January 7, 2015, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the first degree (two counts) and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing her to an aggregate term of six years, unanimously affirmed.
The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and 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 element of serious physical injury was satisfied by evidence objectively supporting the jury's finding that the knife wound inflicted by defendant caused serious and protracted disfigurement, consisting of a scar on the victim's neck (see People v. McKinnon, 15 N.Y.3d 311, 315–316, 910 N.Y.S.2d 767, 937 N.E.2d 524 [2010] ). Photographs taken shortly before trial, the jury's view of the scar, medical testimony, testimony from the victim and reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence support the conclusion that the scar was prominent and distressing, and that it remained so at the time of trial, years after the crime (see e.g. People v. Cruz, 131 A.D.3d 889, 889, 17 N.Y.S.3d 27 [1st Dept.2015] lv. denied 26 N.Y.3d 1108, 26 N.Y.S.3d 767, 47 N.E.3d 97 [2016] ).
FRIEDMAN, J.P., SWEENY, WEBBER, GESMER, JJ., concur.