People v. Ford, 11 N.Y.3d 875 (2008)

When a jury instruction is not objected to, the legal sufficiency of a conviction must be viewed in light of the charge as given, even if the charge incorrectly states the law; the appellate court must evaluate whether there was sufficient evidence to support a conviction under the erroneous jury charge.

Summary

Defendant Ford was convicted of first-degree robbery. On appeal, he argued insufficient evidence of “actual possession” of a dangerous instrument (knife) and erroneous denial of his severance motion. The Appellate Division modified the judgment, reducing the first-degree robbery conviction to third-degree robbery, concluding that the evidence of actual possession was legally insufficient, even though the charge, as given, alerted the jury to the “actual possession” element. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that because the jury charge was not objected to, the legal sufficiency of the conviction must be viewed in light of that charge, and the evidence was sufficient to support the conviction under the given charge. The Court also rejected the severance claim.

Facts

Ford was indicted on robbery charges related to two successive robberies in elevators. Before trial, he unsuccessfully sought to sever the trials. At one of the robberies, Ford stated, “I got a knife,” while moving his hand toward his pants pocket.

Procedural History

The trial court convicted Ford of two counts of first-degree robbery. The Appellate Division modified the judgment, reducing the conviction for first-degree robbery to third-degree robbery. A Judge of the Court of Appeals granted both the People and defendant leave to appeal.

Issue(s)

1. Whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support a conviction for first-degree robbery, given the jury charge as given, even though that charge did not explicitly require a finding of “actual possession” of a dangerous instrument.
2. Whether the trial court erroneously denied the defendant’s severance motion.

Holding

1. Yes, because there was no objection to the jury charge, the legal sufficiency of the conviction must be viewed in light of that charge, and the evidence was sufficient to establish that the defendant “used or threatened the immediate use” of a knife under the charge as given.
2. No, because the defendant failed to establish good cause for severance, and the evidence as to the two crimes was presented separately and was readily capable of being segregated in the minds of the jury.

Court’s Reasoning

The Court of Appeals stated that the jury charge did not adequately convey the “actual possession” requirement because it did not use the term “actual possession” or otherwise communicate that requirement. The court distinguished its recent decision in People v. Jean-Baptiste, where the defendant’s motion to dismiss apprised the trial judge of the error in the charge, rendering an objection superfluous. Here, by contrast, the legal sufficiency objection was based on the perceived inadequacy of proof, not an interpretation of an element of the offense. Because the defense failed to object to the jury charge, the legal sufficiency of the evidence supporting the conviction had to be evaluated in light of the charge as given. The Court found that the evidence, specifically Ford’s statement “I got a knife,” while simultaneously moving his hand toward his pants pocket, was sufficient to establish that Ford “used or threatened the immediate use” of a knife as the trial court charged. The Court emphasized that under CPL 200.20 (3)(a), severance was not warranted because there was no material variance in the quantity of proof for the separate incidents and the evidence of each was easily segregated by the jury.