PEOPLE v. RADA (2019)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura A. Ward, J. at suppression hearing; Ruth Pickholz, J. at nonjury trial and sentencing), rendered May 2, 2016, as amended May 11, 2106 and November 3, 2016, convicting defendant of criminal contempt in the first degree, menacing in the second degree, stalking in the fourth degree, criminal mischief in the fourth degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of two to four years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress his statement, directed at the victim, who was still present after defendant was arrested, that he was going to kill her. This threat, directed against a person covered by an order of protection, formed the basis of the contempt charge. Here, although the threat was made while defendant was in custody and before he received Miranda warnings, it was plainly spontaneous and not the product of a custodial interrogation (see People v. Mojica, 81 A.D.3d 506, 507, 916 N.Y.S.2d 587 [1st Dept. 2011] lv denied 17 N.Y.3d 808, 929 N.Y.S.2d 568, 953 N.E.2d 806 [2011]; People v. Read, 74 A.D.3d 1245, 1246, 904 N.Y.S.2d 147 [2d Dept. 2010]).

We reject defendant's arguments concerning the sufficiency and weight of the evidence supporting the first-degree criminal contempt conviction (Penal Law § 215.51[b][v]). The evidence, viewed as a whole, supports the conclusion that defendant made a true threat of violence.