People v. Bailey
Opinion of the Court
—Judgment of resentence, Supreme Court, New York County (Edwin Torres, J.), rendered July 22, 1997, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of two counts of assault in the first degree and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of 7 years, 7 years and 2 to 4 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.
The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. There is no basis upon which to disturb the jury’s determinations concerning credibility. The credible evidence refuted defendant’s justification and intoxication defenses. Evidence that each of the complainants had multiple lacerations to the face and neck that required numerous sutures and left permanent scars that were viewed by the jury established the element of serious physical injury (see, People v Edmonds, 267 AD2d 19, lv denied 94 NY2d 862).
While it was improper for the court to preclude testimony relating to the complainants’ reputation in the community for untruthfulness, their credibility was extensively impeached by other testimony and thus there is no significant probability that the jury would have acquitted defendant but for the preclusion of the evidence. Accordingly, the error was harmless (see, People v Maher, 89 NY2d 456, 462). Concur — Sullivan, P. J., Williams, Ellerin, Wallach and Friedman, JJ.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.