People v Buie
2009 NY Slip Op 07947 [67 AD3d 432]
November 5, 2009
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, January 6, 2010


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

[*1]Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Peter Theis of counsel), forappellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Christos G. Yatrakis of counsel), forrespondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert Stolz, J.), rendered September 24,2007, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of attempted assault in the second degree andmenacing in the second degree, and sentencing her to a term of six months, with five years'probation, unanimously affirmed.

The evidence was legally sufficient to establish that the liquid bleach defendant threw at thevictim was a dangerous instrument (see Penal Law § 10.00 [10], [13]). Despite theabsence of expert testimony, the jury could have reasonably concluded, from the victim'sinjuries, from the damage to a carpet and to the victim's clothing, and from its own knowledgeand experience regarding the properties of bleach (see e.g. Havas v Victory PaperStock Co., 49 NY2d 381, 386 [1980]), that the bleach was readily capable of causing seriousinjury such as disfiguring burns. Concur—Sweeny, J.P., Buckley, Catterson, Acosta andFreedman, JJ.


NYPTI Decisions © 2026 is a project of New York Prosecutors Training Institute (NYPTI) made possible by leveraging the work we've done providing online research and tools to prosecutors.

NYPTI would like to thank New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Senate's Open Legislation Project, New York State Unified Court System, New York State Law Reporting Bureau and Free Law Project for their invaluable assistance making this project possible.

Install the free RECAP extensions to help contribute to this archive. See https://free.law/recap/ for more information.