People v Coleman

Holding The court reversed the judgment and granted a new trial because the trial court erred in denying a request for a circumstantial evidence charge. The failure to give this charge was not harmless error given the lack of direct identification and the absence of location data placing the defendant at the crime scenes.

The court’s words

Defendant's identity cannot be discerned clearly from the surveillance video footage offered at trial inasmuch as the perpetrators in the videos are masked

2026 NY Slip Op 04629, at the official text

the expert had "no location information" for defendant's phone at the times that the alleged incidents occurred

2026 NY Slip Op 04629, at the official text

this is not "the exceptional case where the failure to give the circumstantial evidence charge was harmless error"

2026 NY Slip Op 04629, at the official text