PEOPLE v. ROBINSON (2023)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Maxwell Wiley, J. at suppression hearing;  Ruth Pickholz, J. at nonjury trial and sentencing), rendered December 15, 2021, convicting defendant of robbery in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of two to four years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was supported by 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 victim's testimony and video surveillance footage established that defendant took the victim's bike and attempted to flee with it.  That same evidence supports the conclusion that defendant punched and kicked the victim when defendant was caught in order to either retain the bike or overcome the victim's resistance to the taking (see Penal Law § 160.00[1];  People v. Gordon, 23 N.Y.3d 643, 650, 992 N.Y.S.2d 700, 16 N.E.3d 1178 [2014];  People v. West, 206 A.D.3d 478, 479, 168 N.Y.S.3d 309 [1st Dept. 2022]).

The court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress his statements to the police, made at the scene of the fight, in response to the question “What happened” (see People v. Hernandez, 217 A.D.3d 460, 460–461, 190 N.Y.S.3d 348 [1st Dept. 2023]).  There was no custodial interrogation requiring Miranda warnings.  Both defendant and the victim were placed into handcuffs immediately after the police stopped their fight as reasonable precautionary measures that did not elevate the detention to an arrest (People v. Sanchez, 210 A.D.3d 599, 600–601, 180 N.Y.S.3d 71 [1st Dept. 2022], lv denied 39 N.Y.3d 1157, 190 N.Y.S.3d 700, 211 N.E.3d 1153 [2023]).  Here, a reasonable innocent person in defendant's situation would have believed that the police were still in the process of gathering information about the fight at the time the officer asked “What happened” (see People v. Dillhunt, 41 A.D.3d 216, 217, 839 N.Y.S.2d 18 [1st Dept. 2007], lv denied 10 N.Y.3d 764, 854 N.Y.S.2d 325, 883 N.E.2d 1260 [2008]).  In any event, any error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of defendant's guilt (see People v. Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230, 367 N.Y.S.2d 213, 326 N.E.2d 787 [1975]).