Defendants convicted of weapon possession and conspiracy charges will get a new trial after the Appellate Division, Second Department, said missing content in a trial judge’s comments to jurors made for reversible error. During deliberations for four defendants in a 2011 trial, the jury sent several notes to Queens Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis (See Profile). One note sought “clarification on the counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.”
In front of the defendants, counsel and the jurors, Lewis said the note asked “to have read to us the counts” of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. He gave instructions regarding those counts and the jury found the four guilty of four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and fourth-degree conspiracy.
