PEOPLE v. SPRUILL (2026)

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Joseph A. McCormack, J.), rendered January 10, 2024, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 20 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

The jury's determination that defendant or one of his accomplices caused the victim's death while robbing or attempting to rob him – as required to support his conviction of felony murder – was supported by 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];  see also People v. Baque, 43 N.Y.3d 26, 229 N.Y.S.3d 62, 254 N.E.3d 606 [2024] ).

The court's instruction that the jury could find defendant guilty of felony murder if it found that “another participant” in the alleged robbery caused the victim's death was not an impermissible constructive amendment of the indictment (see CPL 200.70[2];  People v. Rivera, 84 N.Y.2d 766, 769, 622 N.Y.S.2d 671, 646 N.E.2d 1098 [1995] ).

The court's ruling permitting a witness to testify regarding a phone call, several months prior to the instant offense, in which defendant threatened that he was outside of the eventual shooting victim's apartment and had a gun, was properly admitted for the non-propensity purposes of proving motive and intent;  there had been a longstanding dispute about money that ultimately prompted defendant to ambush and kill the victim (see People v. Molineux, 168 N.Y. 264, 61 N.E. 286 [1901];  see also People v. Cass, 18 N.Y.3d 553, 560, 942 N.Y.S.2d 416, 965 N.E.2d 918 [2012] ).

We perceive no basis for reducing defendant's sentence.