People v. Cooper
Opinion of the Court
—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (J: Goldberg, J.), rendered March 1, 1999, convicting him of robbery in the second degree (two counts) and grand larceny in the fourth degree (two counts), upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. The appeal brings up for review the denial, after a hearing, of that branch of the defendant’s omnibus motion which was to suppress identification testimony.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
Contrary to the defendant’s contentions, the trial court correctly denied the defense request that robbery in the third degree and petit larceny be submitted to the jury as lesser included offenses. It is well settled that a trial court may not submit a lesser included offense unless (1) it would be impossible to commit the greater offense without also committing the lesser, and (2) a reasonable view of the evidence would support a finding that defendant committed the lesser, but not the greater, offense (see CPL 300.50 [1]; People v Ruiz, 220 AD2d 466). Here, each of the complainants testified that the defendant and at least one accomplice committed the robberies. At trial, the defendant denied any and all complicity in the crimes. Thus, there was no reasonable view of the evidence that the defendant was merely present during each of the two car thefts in question, but that he alone then perpetrated the theft of the complainants’ personal property without the use of any force (see People v Scarborough, 49 NY2d 364; People v Gonzalez, 158 AD2d 399, 400).
The defendant incorrectly asserts that the court reporter did
The contentions raised by the defendant in his supplemental pro se brief are either unpreserved for appellate review or without merit. Florio, J.P., Smith, Krausman and Townes, JJ., concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.