People v Basciano
2008 NY Slip Op 07076 [54 AD3d 637]
September 25, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, October 29, 2008


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Steven Basciano, Appellant.

[*1] James Kousouros, Kew Gardens, for appellant.

Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Cynthia A. Carlson of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Michael A. Gross, J.), rendered June 17, 2007, convicting defendant, after a jury verdict, of assault in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 2½ years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly granted the People's request to submit second-degree assault under Penal Law § 120.05 (1) (causing serious physical injury) to the jury as a lesser included offense of first-degree assault under Penal Law § 120.10 (1) (causing serious physical injury by means of a dangerous instrument). There was a reasonable view of the evidence (see People v Negron, 91 NY2d 788 [1998]) that defendant seriously injured the victim by means of his fist, rather than by means of an unidentified hard object as set forth in the indictment. Indeed, such a view was advanced by defendant in his cross-examination of the People's witnesses. Since the indictment necessarily contained the lesser included offense, there is no merit to defendant's arguments that the court constructively amended the indictment or that the People impermissibly changed their theory of prosecution (see People v Gouyagadosh, 295 AD2d 246, 247 [2002]; People v Udzinski, 146 AD2d 245, 254 [1989], lv denied 74 NY2d 853 [1989]). Concur—Tom, J.P., Mazzarelli, Friedman, Williams and Moskowitz, JJ.