Defendant’s Nodding In Agreement With a Statement Made by a Nontestifying Codefendant Properly Admitted as an Adoptive Admission

In finding that a prosecution witness was properly allowed to testify about a nontestifying codefendant’s statement and defendant’s nodding  in agreement. The defendant’s nodding was deemed an “adoptive admission:”

[Defendant’s] rights to due process and a fair trial, and his right of confrontation were not violated when Supreme Court allowed a prosecution witness to testify that defendant nodded in agreement to a statement made by a nontestifying codefendant. Defendant’s nonverbal response was admissible as an adoptive admission (… People v Lourido, 70 NY2d 428, 433), and the court properly instructed the jury in accordance with Lourido that the codefendant’s statements were being admitted solely to establish defendant’s “reaction . . . to that statement . . . [and] not for the truth of the statement” made by the codefendant … . People v Nafi, 2015 NY Slip Op 07132, 4th Dept 10-2-15