Gun conviction overturned, police statements suppressed

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A state appeals court has reversed a weapon conviction and granted a defense motion to suppress statements made to police.

Defendant Scott A. Corey pleaded guilty in June 2021 in Cayuga County Court before Thomas G. Leone to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a firearm, unlawful sale or possession of dangerous substances, and second-degree criminally using drug paraphernalia.

In a decision released Friday by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, the plea was vacated and the case was sent back to County Court.

Corey’s appellate lawyer argued that Leone should have suppressed statements that Corey made to a police officer while Corey was receiving treatment at a hospital.

“We agree in part,” the Fourth Department wrote.

“It is undisputed that defendant was in police custody at the time he made the statements and that no one read defendant his Miranda warnings prior to defendant making the statements,” the court wrote.

The officer testified at the suppression hearing that Corey called the officer over to his bed and said: “I’m beat up.”

The officer asked Corey, “what happened?”

“Defendant then explained the circumstances surrounding how he allegedly came into possession of a weapon he was not legally authorized to possess,” the court wrote.

The Fourth Department ruled that Corey’s initial statement — “I’m beat up” — was not subject to suppression because it was spontaneous “and not the result of inducement, provocation, encouragement or acquiescence.”

“The court, however, erred in refusing to suppress the remainder of his statements, which were made in response to the officer’s question that was intended to elicit a response, and thus those statements cannot be said to have been genuinely spontaneous,” the court wrote.

Without proof that Corey would have pleaded guilty even if the statements were suppressed, the Fourth Department concluded that that “the plea must be vacated because the erroneous suppression ruling may have affected defendant’s decision to plead guilty.”

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