People v. Umali

10 N.Y.3d 417 (2008)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D and friends attended a party at a nightclub. A no-smoking law had recently been enacted and the nightclub's employees, including a bouncer named Dana Blake, spent the evening trying to enforce the new ban. Blake observed D's friends, Jonathan and Alan Chan, with a group of people who were smoking. Blake had an unfriendly conversation with Jonathan Chan that resulted in a scuffle. Blake grabbed Chan by the throat and pushed him toward an emergency exit. Chan was considerably smaller than Blake who was six feet, six inches tall, and weighed about 350 pounds. Patrons attempted to free Chan but were unable to do so. As Blake moved Chan toward the exit, D lunged at Blake and stabbed him in his groin with a six-inch-long, serrated martial arts knife. D managed to escape the nightclub. Blake was transported to a hospital and underwent surgery for a severed femoral artery, but he died later that day. D wrapped his knife in an article of clothing and threw it in a street drain. D went to the Atienzas brothers who noticed large bloodstains on D's pants and suggested that he change his clothing. D blamed the stabbing on the Chans. One of the Atienzas remarked to D 'please say that you used it in self-defense' and 'that you did it for the right reason.' Defendant responded that he did not act in self-defense and had no explanation for the stabbing. The next morning, D's fiancée arrived and D confessed that he stabbed Blake using a special martial arts method. The Atienzas, another man and D's fiancee threw away D's bloody clothing, supplied him with new clothes, and cleaned his telephone. D's fiancee gave her knife to D so that he could show it to anyone who questioned him about the stabbing. D learned that Blake had died. D attempted suicide. D was placed under psychiatric supervision. The Chans were released. D was eventually indicted for two counts of murder in the second degree. D raised a justification defense, explaining that he stabbed Blake in order to protect Jonathan Chan from the use of deadly physical force. The jury rejected D's justification defense, convicting him of manslaughter in the first degree as a lesser included offense of second-degree murder. D appealed. D contends in part that the instructions provided to the jury on his justification defense were erroneous.