Fourth Department – Burglary: People v. Mitchell

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New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Judicial Department

Burglary — Sufficiency of evidence — Psychiatric defense

People v. Mitchell

KA 25-00087

Appealed from Family Court, Onondaga County

Background: The defendant appealed from his conviction of two counts of burglary arising from an incident in which he violated a stay-away order of protection, cut off the power to his wife’s residence, broke into the residence using a sledgehammer, and caused his wife to sustain physical injury during the course of the break-in.

Ruling: The Appellate Division affirmed. The court held that there was no reasonable view of the evidence that the defendant had a non-criminal purpose when he entered his wife’s residence inasmuch as he had jumped the fence into the backyard, cut the power, and used a sledgehammer to repeatedly pound on the residence’s steel door until it caved in, allowing him to enter. Furthermore, he only stopped trying to force his way into the home because he was struck by his father-in-law and because he knew the police were on the way. The Appellate Division further held that there was no error in precluding the defendant from asserting a psychiatric defense at trial as he failed to move for permission until about a week before trial. Finally, preclusion of a purported extramarital affair was proper as it was speculative and the preclusion of the defendant’s military training to establish that he could have harmed the occupants of the home if he really wanted to was properly precluded as irrelevant.

Matthew Albert for the defendant-appellant; Michael J. Hillery, of the district attorney’s office, for the respondent.