People v. Rollino

233 N.Y.S.2d 580 (1962)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

Edwin Martinez was an employee of Long Island Drug Company. D proposed that Martinez should steal from his employer certain of the products that it stocked, as opportunity permitted, and for which D would pay Martinez. Martinez pretended to agree but promptly reported the matter to an official of Long Island Drug Company and he in turn called in a private detective agency. At the suggestion of one of the agency's operators, an official of the Long Island Drug Company gave Martinez a package containing drug products having a wholesale value of $187, with instructions to bring it to the D. D directed Martinez to meet him at a specified time in a designated parking lot in Queens County. Martinez gave D the package, for which Martinez asked $25. D offered $15 in payment and promised that he would do better the next time. D told Martinez to leave the package in the car, lock it, hand over the keys, and leave the lot. When Martinez complied, D also left the parking lot but returned in his own car about a half hour later. D reached in and picked up the package but, after a period of indecision in which he looked about the parking lot with evident apprehension, he put the package down again, closed the door, and started to walk away. The police moved in and apprehended D. D said that he had been sent to pick up the package by a man whom he knew only as James Dunne. When asked why, if that was the case, he did not take it, his only explanation was that he was scared and changed his mind about picking it up. D was indicted on a charge of grand larceny in the second degree. At the conclusion of his trial without a jury, D filed a motion for the dismissal of the indictment charging him with grand larceny, second degree.