*1 Defendant appeals the judgment of the Supreme Court, New York County (Maxwell Wiley, J.), rendered December 18, 2014, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of burglary in the second degree, and imposing sentence.*2
TROY WEBBER, J.On August 28, 2013, at approximately 9:10 p.m., complainant Lopez returned to her top floor, one bedroom apartment in upper Manhattan, which she shared with her husband and two other individuals. When Lopez entered her bedroom, she encountered a stranger, later identified as defendant, standing near the bedroom window. Lopez screamed to her husband that someone was in the apartment. Defendant retreated out the window and up the fire escape ladder. Lopez then noticed that her iPad was missing from her bedroom table and her piggy bank was missing from where she had left it near the bedroom window.At the same time, Police Officer Orlando Corchado and his partner, Officer Lassen, were on the roof of the building, performing a vertical patrol, checking every floor and then ascending to the roof1. Corchado was about 6 to 10 feet from the fire escape when he saw defendant climb up the fire escape ladder toward the roof. Defendant was wearing latex gloves and was carrying a white piggy bank in his left hand. Corchado asked defendant in English why he was there. Defendant answered in Spanish that he worked for the super. Ignoring Corchado’s further request that he stop, defendant climbed back down the ladder.Defendant reappeared at Lopez’s window, climbed into the bedroom, and moved through the bedroom toward the apartment’s outer door. Along the way, he handed the piggy bank to Lopez’s husband and said, “I’m sorry, here’s your piggy bank.” Moments later, Corchado and Lassen followed defendant through the window into the Lopez apartment. Corchado asked Lopez if she knew defendant and if he worked for the super. Lopez replied that defendant “was a thief.” As Corchado proceeded after defendant, he saw him — who was in the hallway of the apartment — reach behind his back and remove an iPad mini that was stuffed in the back waistband of his jeans. Defendant appeared about to discard the iPad when one of the residents of the apartment grabbed it from him. Defendant was placed under arrest by Corchado. Police Officer Lassen searched defendant and recovered from his pockets two flashlights, an iPad charger, a cell phone and latex gloves. Defendant was transported to the hospital and then to the precinct. While in a holding cell at the precinct, and before the administration of his Miranda rights, defendant stated that he was visiting his girlfriend who resided on the 4th floor of the building, and climbed up the fire escape so as to avoid being discovered by her husband.
