The People of the State of New York are the respondents in this case. Peter Wayne Orth is the appellant. The case is being heard in the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department. A New York Criminal Lawyer said the defendant is appealing a judgment made by the Supreme Court of Suffolk County that was rendered on the 8th of March, 1977. The judgment convicted the defendant of robbery in the first degree upon a jury verdict. The defendant has two other orders from the same court, one from the 15th of October 1979 and the other from the 5th of January, 1982, both denying the motion for the judgment of conviction to be vacated and the indictment dismissed.
Case Background
The defendant has been convicted of a robbery that took place at a drugstore in Babylon. During the course of the robbery both drugs and money were stolen.
During the defendant’s trial, a New York Criminal Lawyer said the People on issue of identifying the defendant as one of the people who committed this crime, asked permission to submit evidence that the defendant had robbed drug stores and stole money and drugs from them on three separate occasions. The trial court allowed the evidence to be submitted.
The defendant argued that this evidence had nothing to do with the current crime he was being indicted for. He further argued that prior crimes being submitted as opposed to a witness attesting that the defendant was involved was objectionable as the prior crimes did not prove that he was a part of this robbery and rather just placed him in a category of being a robber.
Court Decision
In this particular case, the evidence of previous crimes should not have been allowed to be submitted during the trial court hearing. A New York Drug Possession Lawyer said this evidence did not provide any proof that the defendant was a part of the robbery and the plaintiff had no other witnesses to bring forth and place the defendant at the crime scene.
After reviewing the facts of the case, the defendant is granted a reversal in the interest of justice. His case will be remitted to the court for a retrial of the case.
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