People v. Agosto
Opinion of the Court
—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ira Globerman, J.), rendered March 24, 1995, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree (2 counts), assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him to consecutive terms of 25 years to life, 20 years to life and 5 to 15 years on the murder and assault convictions, respectively, and a concurrent term of 5 to 15 years on the weapon possession conviction, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly denied, without a hearing, defendant’s motion to set aside the verdict on the grounds of unreported juror bias, since the “moving papers do not contain sworn allegations * * * to support” (CPL 330.40 [2] [e] [ii]) the contention that a juror had a relationship with one of the shooting victims that may have influenced his role as a juror. Defendant’s claimed “web” of family relationships was remote and speculative.
The trial court properly admitted a 911 tape into evidence under a theory of present sense impression, since the tape, which described parts of a continuously unfolding chain of events (see, People v Vasquez, 88 NY2d 561, 574), was a “spontaneous description * * * of events made substantially contemporaneously with the observations * * * [that was] sufficiently corroborated by other evidence” (People v Brown, 80 NY2d 729, 734). Moreover, the tape was admissible as an excited utterance (People v Cook, 220 AD2d 522, 523, Iv denied 87 NY2d 899).
We perceive no abuse of sentencing discretion.
We have reviewed defendant’s remaining arguments and find them to be without merit.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.