People v Occelin
2008 NY Slip Op 09715 [57 AD3d 292]
December 11, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, February 11, 2009


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Wilnerson Occelin, Also Known as Tyrone Evans, Appellant.

[*1] Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Kerry S. Jamieson of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Paula-Rose Stark of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Michael Corriero, J., at suppression hearing; John Cataldo, J., at plea and sentence), rendered February 15, 2007, convicting defendant of robbery in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of six years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress statements. There is no basis for disturbing the court's credibility determinations (see People v Prochilo, 41 NY2d 759, 761 [1977]), including its finding that defendant orally waived his Miranda rights prior to any questioning. The totality of the circumstances establishes that the statements were voluntarily made (see Arizona v Fulminante, 499 US 279, 285-288 [1991]; People v Anderson, 42 NY2d 35, 38-39 [1977]). The record refutes defendant's claim that the voluntariness of his statements was impaired by an injury he sustained at the time of the crime and by his alleged lack of sleep; the hearing evidence included, among other things, detailed testimony as to his demeanor when he was interviewed, as well as evidence that he had no difficulty writing a lengthy statement. Concur—Andrias, J.P., Saxe, Sweeny, Catterson and Moskowitz, JJ.