Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (A. Kirke Bartley, Jr., J.), rendered January 3, 2006, after a jury trial, convicting him of reckless endangerment in the second degree and leaving the scene of an accident, and imposing sentence.

Per Curiam.

Judgment of conviction (A. Kirke Bartley, Jr., J.), rendered January 3, 2006, affirmed.

The trial court properly admitted, as excited utterances, statements made by a nontestifying cab driver to police indicating that he had just witnessed a hit-and-run accident involving a pedestrian and was pursuing the fleeing vehicle, a white Jeep still in view that was driven by defendant. The hearing evidence supported the conclusion that the hit-and-run accident had occurred within the previous 15 minutes at a location approximately 20 blocks away and that the declarant, who was then attempting to give chase, was still under the influence of the stress of the incident (see People v Johnson, 1 NY3d 302 [2003]; People v Sykes, 26 AD3d 203 [2006]; lv denied 7 NY3d 795 [2006]). The admission of the excited utterances did not violate defendant's right to confrontation, since the statements were volunteered, rather than elicited through structured police questioning (see People v Paul, 25 AD3d 165 [2005], lv denied 6 NY3d 757 [2005]), and were made to "enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency" (Davis v Washington, 547 US 813, 822 [2006]; see also People v Nieves-Andino, 9 NY3d 12, 15-16 [2007]). We have considered and rejected defendant's jurisdictional argument.

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
Decision Date: October 21, 2008