New trial granted in weapon case over jury instruction error

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A state appeals court has ordered a new trial in a weapon case because of an error in the jury instructions.

Defendant Jeremy B. Soto pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in October 2016 in state Supreme Court in Rochester before Justice Thomas E. Moran.

In a decision released Friday, the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Fourth Department, “in the interest of justice and on the law,” reversed two of the convictions and granted a new trial on those counts.

The Fourth Department panel concluded that the convictions were “supported by legally sufficient evidence, and that the verdict, viewed in light of the elements of the crimes as charged to the jury, is not against the weight of the evidence.”

But the panel agreed with Soto’s appellate lawyer Catherine A. Menikotz, who argued that Moran should have given the jury a circumstantial evidence instruction.

The evidence against Soto was entirely circumstantial, and the jury instructions “failed to convey to the jury in substance that it must appear that the inference of guilt is the only one that can fairly and reasonably be drawn from the facts, and that the evidence excludes beyond a reasonable doubt every reasonable hypothesis of innocence,” the panel wrote.

“Inasmuch as the proof of defendant’s guilt is not overwhelming, the inadequacy of the charge was prejudicial error requiring reversal of those parts of the judgment convicting defendant under counts one and two of the superseding indictment and a new trial with respect thereto, notwithstanding defendant’s failure to request such a charge or to except to the charge as given,” the court wrote.

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