People v Acevedo
2008 NY Slip Op 09164 [56 AD3d 341]
November 20, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, January 7, 2009


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
JuanAcevedo, Appellant.

[*1]Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Mugambi Jouet ofcounsel), for appellant.

Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Nancy D. Killian of counsel), forrespondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Denis J. Boyle, J.), rendered July 5, 2007,convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to aterm of 22 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly declined to submit to the jury the affirmative defense of extremeemotional disturbance. There was insufficient evidence, viewed in a light most favorable todefendant, from which the jury could find, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the elementsof that defense were satisfied (see People v Roche, 98 NY2d 70, 75 [2002]; People vWhite, 79 NY2d 900, 903 [1992]). On the contrary, the evidence failed to establish thatdefendant had any reasonable excuse or explanation for his actions, which evince the plannedand deliberate character of the attack; nor did the evidence show that defendant was actuallyinfluenced by an emotional disturbance at the time of the stabbing (White, 79 NY2d at903). Furthermore, defendant's postcrime conduct did not suggest extreme emotional distress, butinstead suggested that he was in full command of his faculties and had consciousness of guilt(see e.g. People v Henriquez, 233 AD2d 268 [1996], lv denied 89 NY2d 942[1997]).

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Lippman, P.J., Mazzarelli,Buckley, McGuire and DeGrasse, JJ.


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