Learn About the Law
Get help with your legal needs
FindLaw’s Learn About the Law features thousands of informational articles to help you understand your options. And if you’re ready to hire an attorney, find one in your area who can help.
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Denzil LUKE, Defendant-Appellant.
Judgments, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Megan Tallmer, J.), rendered October 21, 2002, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the second degree, and convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of promoting prison contraband in the first degree, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of 5 years and 1 to 3 years, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly admitted the testifying victim's statement to a social worker as an excited utterance (see People v. Johnson, 1 N.Y.3d 302, 772 N.Y.S.2d 238, 804 N.E.2d 402). The evidence established that the distraught victim, described by a witness as hysterical, was still under the stress of the brutal beating that defendant had inflicted a short time before.
The court properly refused to submit assault in the third degree as a lesser included offense of assault in the second degree. Given the nature of the victim's injuries, as well as fact that her testimony constituted an integrated whole (see People v. Negron, 91 N.Y.2d 788, 676 N.Y.S.2d 520, 699 N.E.2d 32), there was no reasonable view of the evidence that defendant assaulted the victim with just his hands rather than with a dangerous instrument.
Thank you for your feedback!
A free source of state and federal court opinions, state laws, and the United States Code. For more information about the legal concepts addressed by these cases and statutes visit FindLaw's Learn About the Law.
Decided: June 29, 2004
Court: Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.
Search our directory by legal issue
Enter information in one or both fields (Required)
Harness the power of our directory with your own profile. Select the button below to sign up.
Learn more about FindLaw’s newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy.
Get help with your legal needs
FindLaw’s Learn About the Law features thousands of informational articles to help you understand your options. And if you’re ready to hire an attorney, find one in your area who can help.
Search our directory by legal issue
Enter information in one or both fields (Required)