Summary
The Appellate Division, First Department reversed a Bronx County Supreme Court order that vacated guilty verdicts for attempted sex trafficking of a child and attempted promoting prostitution in the second degree. The court held that the evidence was legally sufficient and that the defendant's conduct came dangerously close to completing the intended offenses, reinstating the verdicts and remitting for resentencing.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the evidence was legally sufficient to support convictions for attempted sex trafficking of a child and attempted promoting prostitution in the second degree.
- Whether the evidence demonstrated that defendant came dangerously close to completing those attempted offenses.
- Whether the verdicts on those counts were against the weight of the evidence.
Holdings
- The evidence was legally sufficient to support the jury's verdicts on both attempted offenses, and Supreme Court improperly vacated those guilty verdicts.
- The evidence established that defendant came dangerously close to committing both attempted sex trafficking of a child and attempted promoting prostitution in the second degree.
- The jury's verdicts were not against the weight of the evidence.
Key quotations
“Evidence is legally sufficient if, "after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt"” ([*1])
“To be guilty of an attempt to commit a crime, "a person's conduct" must come "dangerously close to committing the intended crime"” ([*2])
“carr[ied] the project forward within dangerous proximity to the criminal end to be attained” ([*2])
Factual background
Defendant, age 34, operated a sex-worker business using A.J., age 16, as a sex worker. After an undercover police operation rescued A.J., defendant sent communications that included screenshots of sex buyers requesting "Candy" and repeatedly asked A.J. to return. The jury found that defendant's conduct was intended to reinitiate his exploitation of A.J. as a child sex worker.
Procedural history
A jury convicted defendant of several offenses, including attempted sex trafficking of a child and attempted promoting prostitution in the second degree. Supreme Court orally granted defendant's motion for a trial order of dismissal on those two counts. After granting the People's motion to reargue, Supreme Court adhered to its original dismissal order. The Appellate Division reversed, denied defendant's motion in its entirety, reinstated the verdicts, and remitted for resentencing.
Remand instructions
Reinstate the verdicts convicting defendant of attempted sex trafficking of a child and attempted promoting prostitution in the second degree, deny defendant's motion in its entirety, and remit the matter for resentencing.