From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

People v. Collins

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Apr 25, 1995
214 A.D.2d 483 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)

Opinion

April 25, 1995

Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Charles Tejada, J.).


Defendant's claim that the detective improperly testified to the complainant's pretrial photographic identification of defendant is unpreserved for review as a matter of law (People v Fleming, 70 N.Y.2d 947), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. If we were to review it, we would find that since reference to the photographic identification, as well as to descriptions of the perpetrator communicated to the police by the complainant prior to trial, was contained in a report prepared by the detective that was moved into evidence by defendant himself during his cross-examination of the detective, without redaction and without a request for limiting instructions, it was proper for the prosecution on its redirect examination of the detective to elicit information concerning the photographic identification and descriptions of the perpetrator that was derived directly from the report (see generally, People v Melendez, 55 N.Y.2d 445, 451-452). Also unpreserved as a matter of law are defendant's challenges to the prosecutor's summation (People v Tardbania, 72 N.Y.2d 852), and counsel's very lack of objection suggests the lack of prejudice arising therefrom (see, People v Rodriguez, 103 A.D.2d 121, 129). Were we to review in the interest of justice, we would find that while the prosecutor's tailoring argument was improper, it does not by itself warrant reversal (People v Moses, 178 A.D.2d 109, lv denied 79 N.Y.2d 922), and that if it was questionable for the prosecutor to urge the jurors to look at one another for 10 seconds, the duration of the crime, in order to evaluate the complainant's ability to remember defendant's face, such an argument can be viewed as simply inviting the jurors to apply common sense and to call upon their own life experience. Here, too, there was no preservation of the issue.

Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Rosenberger, Wallach, Kupferman and Tom, JJ.


Summaries of

People v. Collins

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Apr 25, 1995
214 A.D.2d 483 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)
Case details for

People v. Collins

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. TIMOTHY COLLINS…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department

Date published: Apr 25, 1995

Citations

214 A.D.2d 483 (N.Y. App. Div. 1995)
625 N.Y.S.2d 222

Citing Cases

People v. Straker

The court properly admitted testimony that the complainant had previously viewed a photographic array, and…

People v. Seeley

The Ventimiglia ruling was proper since the testimony of the uncharged crime was probative in establishing…