PEOPLE v. OJEDA (2004)

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Joseph Fisch, J.), rendered May 10, 2002, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of attempted murder in the second degree (two counts), criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and reckless endangerment in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 20 years, and judgment, same court (William I. Mogulescu, J.), rendered June 21, 2002, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of stolen property in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a concurrent term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 515 N.Y.S.2d 761, 508 N.E.2d 672 [1987] ).   Issues of credibility and identification, including inconsistencies in the testimony of the People's witnesses, were properly considered by the jury, and there is no basis for disturbing its determinations (see People v. Gaimari, 176 N.Y. 84, 94, 68 N.E. 112 [1903] ).   The victims had an adequate opportunity to observe that defendant was the person who shot at them.

There was legally sufficient evidence of defendant's intent to kill, in that after emerging from a van that was following the victims' car, defendant fired three shots at the victims at very close range (see e.g. People v. Cabassa, 79 N.Y.2d 722, 728, 586 N.Y.S.2d 234, 598 N.E.2d 1 [1992], cert. denied 506 U.S. 1011, 113 S.Ct. 633, 121 L.Ed.2d 563 [1992];  People v. Demeritt, 291 A.D.2d 726, 730, 738 N.Y.S.2d 727 [2002], lv. denied 98 N.Y.2d 650, 745 N.Y.S.2d 508, 772 N.E.2d 611 [2002] ).   In addition, the evidence warrants a reasonable inference that defendant's motive was a mistaken belief that the victims were part of a group with which defendant and his companions had been fighting.