NO EVIDENCE THREE WEAPONS IN A SAFE WERE POSSESSED BY THREE SEPARATE ACTS, SENTENCES SHOULD HAVE BEEN CONCURRENT, DECISIONS TO THE CONTRARY SHOULD NO LONGER BE FOLLOWED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department determined there was no indication the three weapons in a safe were possessed by three separate acts. The sentences therefore should have been concurrent:

… [T]he defendant’s convictions of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree … were based upon his act of constructively possessing three guns in a safe on December 2, 2009 … . Since these convictions were based upon the defendant’s constructive possession of guns in the same location at the same time, and there was no proof of any separate act by the defendant which constituted possession of one of the guns, as opposed to either of the other two guns, the convictions were based upon the same act, and the sentencing court was required to impose concurrent sentences … . … [T]he mere fact that the defendant possessed three guns does not prove three separate acts of possession, and, to the extent that our decisions in People v Horn (196 AD2d 886) and People v Negron (184 AD2d 532, 533) can be read to so hold, those cases should no longer be followed. In an analogous context, the Court of Appeals held, to the contrary, that a sentencing court was not authorized to impose consecutive sentences on a defendant’s convictions of three counts of possessing a sexual performance by a child, despite the defendant’s possession of separate images depicting child pornography, because the People failed to allege or adduce facts demonstrating separate acts of downloading the digital images (see People v Dean, 8 NY3d at 930-931). Similarly, possession of three guns without further proof of separate and distinct acts of possession cannot support consecutive sentences for three counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree … . People v Smith, 2018 NY Slip Op 08695, Second Dept 12-19-18

SENTENCING