People State New York v. Eulogio Cruz

[66 N.Y.2d 61 Page 64] Opinion OF THE COURT Defendant Eulogio Cruz has been convicted of murder, second degree, committed during the course of a gas station robbery in The Bronx. Defendant Belton Brims has been convicted of two counts of murder, second degree, and other crimes committed during the burglary of a private home in Spring Valley, New York. Both defendants were tried jointly with co-defendants and the principal issues submitted in these appeals are whether the courts' refusal to grant defendants' motions for severance resulted in trials impermissibly flawed contrary to the rule of Bruton v United States (391 U.S. 123; see also, Roberts v Russell, 392 U.S. 293), and if not whether reversal is nevertheless required because the prosecutions failed to meet minimum standards of fairness (see, People v Payne, 35 N.Y.2d 22; People v La Belle, 18 N.Y.2d 405). In each trial statements of the co-defendants and the defendants were received in evidence. The basis for defendants' claims are their assertions not only that the content of their non-testifying co-defendant's statements did not ""interlock"" with their own but that even if the statements were substantially the same, defendants were prejudiced because the reliability of the co-defendants' confessions, made in the controlled environment of a police station, to police officers and under circumstances rendering them more credible, was greater than that of defendants' alleged confessions, made to lay witnesses having motives to falsify. Because of this difference in reliability, defendants contend that the [66 N.Y.2d 61 Page 65]