Articles Posted in Gun Possession

In this criminal case, the Plaintiff is the mother of and Administratrix of the Estate of her deceased son. In April 2006, the son, who was age 17 at the time, was in the backyard of the premises visiting with his friend. The owner of the premises was the defendant.

A Queens County Criminal lawyer said that at approximately 1:50 p.m., while the son and his friend were working on a car in the backyard, the son was fatally shot by a gunman who approached the two boys in the backyard. When the police arrived on the scene, the son, who was still conscious, told the police that he was shot by someone who came up and shot him from the adjoining yard. He was taken to a Hospital where he was operated on for his gun shot wound. However, at 8:26 a.m. the next morning, he died, never regaining consciousness. An individual, who was not the shooter, was arrested that day for possession of a weapon which was kept in the residence. Five months later, the police arrested another individual and charged him with the murder of the deceased.

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A Queens Criminal Lawyer said that, consolidated appeals (1), by the defendants from two judgments (one as to each of them) of the Supreme Court, Queens County, both rendered June 19, 1984, convicting Day of murder in the second degree, and convicting defendant of manslaughter in the first degree and robbery in the first degree, upon their pleas of guilty, and imposing sentences, and (2) by the defendant from two judgments of the same court, both also rendered June 19, 1984, convicting him of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and criminal possession of stolen property in the first degree under, upon his pleas of guilty, and imposing sentences. The appeals bring up for review the denial, in part, after a hearing, of those branches of the defendants’ omnibus motions which were to suppress statements made by them to law enforcement officials and identification testimony.

A Queens Gun Crime Lawyer said that, shortly after midnight on November 3, 1983, the defendants with a third companion, were driving through Jamaica Estates in Queens when they observed two students from Saint John’s University, the victims walking from their parked automobile to their apartment building. While one of the defendants relieved the victim of her valuables at gun point, another pursued the fleeing of the victim stabbing her in the heart when she struggled. Money and jewelry were taken from the women, and the jewelry was pawned on the following day at a shop on Rockaway Boulevard in Queens.

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A police officer on radio motor patrol duty received a radio run that there was a man with a gun at a luncheonette. The officer immediately proceeded to that busy location, where he observed several other police officers speaking with a white female, grey-haired pedestrian.

The officer overheard the woman say that a man was carrying a shopping bag and that he had a gun. The officer noticed a tall man in blue coat and blue jeans carrying a shopping bag who was walking in the vicinity. Upon inquiry, the woman told the officer that it was the man with the blue coat and blue jeans who had the gun. The officer thereupon jumped back into his radio car and followed the man. Shortly thereafter, the officer approached the man, the defendant herein, drew his revolver and called out turn around. The officer told the defendant to put the shopping bag down and raise his hands. The defendant complied with the officer’s request. The officer then lifted the shopping bag, and from its weight, thought that it contained a gun. He opened the shopping bag and observed a vinyl carrying case which was designed to carry a revolver. The officer opened the case and found an unloaded 22 caliber long rifle. The officer then immediately searched the defendant and found a loaded ammunition clip with 10 rounds in the defendant’s right hand coat pocket. The defendant was handcuffed, put in the radio car and brought to the stationhouse.

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At approximately 3:00 a.m., a radio transmission was broadcast of a robbery in progress and three police officers claimed to have heard it, each initially stating they heard a broadcast describing a robbery that had been committed by four male blacks that fled in with a vehicle. One of the police officer later revised his statement to reflect that the radio broadcast described two attackers, not four. The two other police officers maintained that they heard four male blacks. One of the police officers also stated that he received additional information, that there were four black attackers, by radio from a different unknown source.

The initial radio transmissions, a recording of which was presented in evidence, includes that there had been 10-30 robbery at gun point and that the attackers were described as two male blacks, one mask over face, who fled with a vehicle with unknown license plate and unknown direction of flight. Such radio transmissions did not specify a more detailed physical description of the offenders or their clothing, the license plate of the fleeing vehicle, the model, the number of doors, the age or condition of the vehicle, or as noted, its direction of flight.

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The defendant was charged with endangering the welfare of a child and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree. She now moves the Court for an order dismissing the charge of endangering the welfare of a child for facial insufficiency.

A Queens County Criminal attorney said that an accusatory instrument upon which the defendant may be held for trial “must allege facts of an evidentiary character’ demonstrating reasonable cause to believe that the defendant committed the crime charged.” Further, valid criminal court information must contain non-hearsay factual allegations which, if true, “establish every element of the offense charged and the defendant’s commission thereof.” CPL §100.40(1)(c).

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Late in the evening of August 4, 1994, an exchange student from Japan was returning from work to his residence. He would never safely reach the refuge of his apartment, as he would be fatally shot in the head by the defendant during a botched robbery on the 4th floor stairwell of his building. Upon entering his building, he was followed into the elevator by the defendant and an individual while a third individual waited in the lobby. During the ensuing robbery attempt that commenced after the exchange student exited from the elevator, a physical altercation developed between the victim and the perpetrators culminating with the defendant discharging his weapon at the exchange student.

For his part, the defendant alleged that the shooting was accidental. In a written statement given to the police, the defendant wrote that the three of them went up in the building and they saw a Chinese man and they all got off and the Chine man ran out the elevator and started to fight back and the gun went off by mistake. During the course of the next 18 years the defendant would claim that this statement, as well as a subsequent statement memorialized on videotape, were untrue, and were illegally obtained by the police because they tricked him into confessing. In fact, he would later claim that he was not present at the time of the shooting, but was instead with his girlfriend driving her back to the Bronx.

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Thus, in one case, which was factually quite similar to this case, the officer saw “a heavy object slide against the material in the right pocket” of defendant’s long outer coat. The officer tapped the pocket and “on feeling a hard object, reached into the pocket and removed a .22 calibre six-inch revolver with six rounds of live ammunition.” Suppression was directed because defendant “had done nothing wrong” before the officer reached into defendant’s pocket and because the officer could not tell “what the heavy object appeared to be by looking at the pocket”. Nothing in “defendant’s standing behind the pimp, in his nervousness or his slouched stature, or the fact that he had his hands in his coat pockets and removed them very slowly when requested to do so, or that a heavy object slid against the material of defendant’s pocket can be said to be reasonably referable to or indicative of the presence of a revolver.”

The officer here initially testified that all he wanted was a reasonable answer to his query about the bulky and weighty object in defendant’s pocket, and defendant then would have been free to go “on his way without my ever touching his pocket.” He later added that to satisfy his own curiosity he probably still would have touched the pocket if defendant had not shown him its contents. Such a touch would have been an unwarranted intrusion. The fact that defendant’s “‘pocket was hanging’, ‘like something heavy was in it’ ” was held insufficient as a basis for a frisk or search for a revolver in. On the facts here, it is plain there was no lawful predicate for the search.

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A New York Criminal Lawyer said that, on May 3, 1991, defendant was approached by the drug dealer on West 151st Street in Manhattan. The drug dealer asked defendant to sell him $8 worth of crack. Defendant insisted that the drug dealer wait for another buyer to come along because he did not want to retrieve such a small amount of drugs from his supply. When the drug dealer persisted, defendant threw his $8 on the ground and a fight broke out. During the fight, defendant left to retrieve a semiautomatic gun from an adjacent building while defendant’s associate resumed the fight with the drug dealer. When defendant returned with the pistol, the drug dealer fled into the lobby of a nearby apartment building, located at 528 West 151st Street.

A New York Criminal Possession of a Weapon Lawyer said that, a bystander and building resident both testified that they were in the process of trying to unlock the interior door leading in from the lobby when the drug dealer ran into the lobby, bleeding and upset, and asked them to hurry. Moments later, defendant approached the entrance to 528 West 151st Street, stood outside the exterior door of the building, pointed his weapon through a missing windowpane in the door, and fired four rounds into the lobby, and then immediately fled the scene. The building resident escaped unharmed, the bystander suffered a non-lethal gunshot wound to the waist, and the rug dealer died in the hospital as a result of one bullet penetrating his torso. The building resident testified that the lobby was well-lit and she could clearly identify defendant’s upper body and face. Four spent .25 caliber shells were recovered from the building lobby.

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A New York Criminal Lawyer said that, the defendant was observed by Officers walking in front of a building on Lexington Avenue. The officers also observed through the glass doors of that building that two people were standing in the vestibule area and appeared to be having an argument. The second Officer entered the vestibule area. The other officer approached the defendant and asked him what he was doing. He did not give defendant an opportunity to answer but, rather, pressed a second question: whether defendant knew the two people in the hallway. Defendant denied knowing them. The officer then directed defendant into the hallway.

A New York Criminal Possession of a Lawyer said that, meanwhile, in the hallway, the second Officer was frisking one individual, who was facing the wall with his hands stretched upward against the wall. The second person observed in the hallway was in a corner of the vestibule watching the proceedings. When the first Officer came into the hallway, no weapons had yet been found in the possession of either the individual or the defendant. Ultimately, defendant was found to be in criminal possession of a weapon and an ammunition clip. As they passed the doorway, the officers looked through the glass door and saw two men, in the vestibule talking and waving their arms. The officers parked their car and continued to observe all three men. The two men in the hallway appeared to be having an argument, and one of the men, had an amount of currency in his hands. Defendant continued going back and forth between the apartment house door and the curb, and looking into the hallway. The actions of these three men appeared to the officers to match a pattern of so-called hallway robberies, with the man on the street as a lookout.

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A New York Criminal Lawyer said that, defendant was convicted after trial of first degree reckless endangerment and second degree criminal possession of a weapon. The Appellate Division modified, finding insufficient evidence to support the conviction for reckless endangerment but affirming the conviction for criminal possession of a weapon. On these cross appeals, the People maintain the reckless endangerment charge was sufficiently proven and defendant contends the count in the indictment charging him with criminal possession of a weapon should have been dismissed because it was duplicitous.

A New York Gun Crime Lawyer said that, the People’s evidence established that at approximately 6:15 A.M. on the morning of August 1, 1982, defendant and another man confronted the victim as he was returning home and demanded money from him, apparently to satisfy a debt. When the victim refused to pay them, a scuffle developed and defendant produced a pistol. He dropped it during the fight, however, and when the gun hit the ground it fired. The victim got away from the men and tried to run and hide but defendant found him and repeatedly struck him with the weapon. The victim eventually was able to retreat to his apartment.

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