PEOPLE v. KINGSBERRY (2004)

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Tomei, J.), rendered December 10, 2002, convicting her of murder in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant's contention that the evidence was legally insufficient to establish her guilt of murder in the second degree is unpreserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05[2];  People v. Gray, 86 N.Y.2d 10, 629 N.Y.S.2d 173, 652 N.E.2d 919;  People v. Udzinski, 146 A.D.2d 245, 541 N.Y.S.2d 9).   In any event, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution (see People v. Contes, 60 N.Y.2d 620, 467 N.Y.S.2d 349, 454 N.E.2d 932), we find that it was legally sufficient to establish the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.   Moreover, upon the exercise of our factual review power, we are satisfied that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see CPL 470.15[5] ).

The defendant contends that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury that a prosecution witness could be considered an accomplice as a matter of fact, whose testimony required corroboration.   However, the subject witness was, at most, an “accessory after the fact,” whose testimony needed no corroboration under CPL 60.22 (People v. Dygert, 229 A.D.2d 735, 736, 645 N.Y.S.2d 902;  People v. Sacco, 199 A.D.2d 288, 289, 604 N.Y.S.2d 971).   Accordingly, an accomplice corroboration charge was not warranted (see People v. Young, 235 A.D.2d 441, 442, 653 N.Y.S.2d 124;  People v. Brown, 221 A.D.2d 270, 271, 634 N.Y.S.2d 84).