People v. DaCosta

Summary

The New York Court of Appeals held that the evidence was legally sufficient to support the defendant’s conviction for second-degree manslaughter. The defendant’s flight across a major highway while being pursued by police was a sufficiently direct and reasonably foreseeable cause of the pursuing officer’s fatal fall into traffic.

Holdings

1. The evidence was legally sufficient to establish that defendant's flight set in motion the events leading to McLellan's death and was a sufficiently direct cause of the death. It was reasonably foreseeable that leading a pursuing officer onto a major highway during morning rush-hour traffic could result in a fatal vehicle collision.
2. Defendant's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence of recklessness was unpreserved because he did not raise recklessness as a basis for his trial motion to dismiss.

Questions Presented

1. Whether defendant's conduct was a sufficiently direct and foreseeable legal cause of Officer McLellan's death to support a conviction for second-degree manslaughter.
2. Whether defendant's challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence of recklessness was preserved for appellate review.

Disposition

affirmed