Crimes - Appeal - Fugitive Disentitlement Doctrine

Crimes - Verdict - Standard of Review - Identification of Defendant as Perpetrator of Assault

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Kirke A. Bartley, J.), rendered February 21, 2017, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of five years, and 31/2 to 7 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

We decline to dismiss defendant's appeal under the fugitive disentitlement doctrine (see People v Taveras, 10 NY3d 227, 232 [2008]) even though he absconded and has not been contactable for more than two years. Because "disposition of the discrete [weight of the evidence] issue[ ] would result in either an affirmance or outright dismissal of the convictions[,] neither outcome would require the continued legal participation of defendants" (People v Ventura, 17 NY3d 675, 682 [2011]).

Defendant's guilt was supported by the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]; see also People Baque, 43 NY3d 26 [2024]). The testimony from three eyewitnesses, including that of a police officer who observed the assault, provided an ample basis for the jury to conclude that defendant was the individual who assaulted plaintiff with a glass bottle (see People v Tapia, 151 AD3d 437, 437-439 [1st Dept 2017], affd 33 NY3d 257 [2019], cert denied 589 US 1103 [2019]). Concur—Manzanet-Daniels, J.P., Friedman, Pitt-Burke, Rosado, Chan, JJ.