Opinion
January 27, 1986
Appeal from the County Court, Dutchess County (Kessler, J.).
Judgment affirmed.
Defendant contends that the hearing court erred in failing to suppress inculpatory statements made at her arraignment after she had previously requested an attorney upon being given her Miranda rights. The Town Justice had not been advised of this request. During the reading of the complaint by the Town Justice, which made reference to an intent to kill, defendant blurted out in Creole to the interpreter that "I did not intend to kill anyone, I just wanted to hurt him". Defendant was not responding to a question and it cannot be said that her statements were "triggered by any police conduct which should have reasonably been anticipated to evoke a declaration from the defendant" (People v North, 81 A.D.2d 944; People v Lynes, 49 N.Y.2d 286, 295).
The facts that defendant was 17 years of age at the time she committed the crime of which she was convicted, spoke little English and might have had limited intellectual abilities do not constitute circumstances so unusual as to warrant suppression of her spontaneous admission at the arraignment (see, People v Maerling, 46 N.Y.2d 289, 302-303).
Finally, in light of the overwhelming evidence of defendant's guilt, we reject defendant's contention that a single ambiguous reference to her failure to take the stand made in the prosecutor's summation constituted reversible error. Any error was harmless since there was no reasonable possibility that the comment might have contributed to her conviction (see, People v Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230, 237). Gibbons, J.P., Bracken, Rubin and Kunzeman, JJ., concur.