The Second Department determined a recording of defendant’s phone conversation with his mother, made when defendant was in jail, should not have been admitted as an adoptive admission. The error was deemed harmless however. The Second Department further determined that the sentences for criminal possession of a weapon should be concurrent with the sentence for murder. There was no evidence the weapon was possessed for an unlawful purpose other than the shooting:
The defendant contends that the Supreme Court should not have permitted the People to introduce into evidence, as an adoptive admission of guilt, a recording of a telephone call that he made to his mother while he was incarcerated at Rikers Island Correctional Facility. We agree. “Generally, an adoptive admission is allowed when a party acknowledges and assents to something already uttered by another person, which thus becomes effectively the party’s own admission” . Here, the People failed to establish that the defendant assented to the statements uttered by his mother during the telephone call … . …
The evidence adduced at trial failed to establish that the defendant possessed the gun for an unlawful purpose unrelated to shooting at the intended victim, resulting in the death of the victim (see Penal Law § 265.03[1][b]…), or that his possession of a gun was separate and distinct from his shooting of the victim (see Penal Law § 265.03[3] … ). Accordingly, the terms of imprisonment imposed upon the defendant’s convictions of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree should run concurrently with the sentence imposed upon his conviction of murder in the second degree. People v King, 2019 NY Slip Op 03813, Second Dept 5-15-19