Man not guilty of DWI, guilty of assault
NORWICH – A jury found a man not guilty of driving while intoxicated but guilty of assault Wednesday in a case that involved no witnesses or police actually seeing him behind the wheel.
Rudolph S. Sines was found not guilty of felony DWI and guilty of third degree assault, a misdemeanor, after prosecutors contended that on at around 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11, 2009 he drove from the Rite Aid parking lot in Norwich to his home along State Highway 23 a few miles away, intoxicated.
After arriving home, Sines is accused of engaging in a domestic dispute where he shoved and kicked his wife because she went out drinking the night before, said District Attorney Joseph McBride.
The key witness in the case for prosecutors was a friend of the family, Megan Eddy, who testified she dropped an intoxicated Sines off at his car in the Rite Aid parking lot after finding him walking along the street. Eddy said she never saw Sines get behind the wheel of the vehicle, but after driving around the block she found that he and the car had left the area.
Eddy said Sines was angry with his wife for an incident that involved her being out late the night before. Eddy told jurors she received a call from the wife soon after dropping off Sines, when she was told the two were engaged in a violent confrontation. Eddy then dialed 911 and reported the domestic dispute to police before traveling to the couple’s home.
New York State Trooper Christopher Marinelli and Investigator Jason Besset responded to the scene and told the jury they found a car warm to the touch and fresh tire tracks in the driveway. They also testified that Sines was intoxicated.
Besset said the officers split up at the scene; he talked to Sines outside the home and Marinelli went inside to talk to the wife.
“He told me he was drunk and that he had driven home that way,” Besset testified.
Defense Attorney Frederick J. Neroni pointed out that no one else heard the alleged oral admission and that his client was claiming he never said it.
Marinelli also testified that Sines’ wife had admitted to him that she had been “shoved and kicked” by her husband and that the two had not been drinking since he arrived home a short time earlier.
Combining the statements from the three individuals, Marinelli told the jury he decide to arrest Sines for DWI and assault.
“In spite of the fact that all four people that saw him that day said he was intoxicated, including his wife, and that he admitted he was driving the car, and there is tremendous evidence he was driving the car intoxicated – I was shocked and disappointed in the verdict as were the other people involved,” McBride said following the decision.
Before the jury left for deliberations, both McBride and Neroni made closing statements to the panel.
“Can you convict a man of driving drunk if no one saw him driving? If no one even saw him in the car?” Neroni asked the jury. “In most cases a person commits an erratic act behind the wheel, they forget a turn signal or something, but there is no cause in this case to show beyond a reasonable doubt Mr. Sines was in that car under the influence.”
Neroni told jurors Sines was upset in the dispute with his wife and began drinking at the home, not before. Sines himself never took the stand.
McBride noted the difference between direct evidence and circumstantial evidence to jurors, saying no one needed to see Sines behind the wheel in order to conclude he had committed the crime.
“If you look out a window and you see the snow falling to the ground, that’s direct evidence it’s snowing. If you go to bed and it looks like it’s going to snow and you wake up and the ground is covered, then you reasonably know it snowed. That’s circumstantial evidence and it’s good evidence,” he told jurors.
McBride noted in prior court hearings that Sines was arrested for another DWI charge in fall of 2009 in Broome County while his Chenango case was pending. The DA also noted Sines had a prior felony DWI conviction and had done time in state prison for possessing controlled substances. That information was not presented to the jury yesterday.
McBride said he would ask for the maximum possible sentence of one year in local jail at Sines’ assault sentencing.
Rudolph S. Sines was found not guilty of felony DWI and guilty of third degree assault, a misdemeanor, after prosecutors contended that on at around 7:30 p.m. Jan. 11, 2009 he drove from the Rite Aid parking lot in Norwich to his home along State Highway 23 a few miles away, intoxicated.
After arriving home, Sines is accused of engaging in a domestic dispute where he shoved and kicked his wife because she went out drinking the night before, said District Attorney Joseph McBride.
The key witness in the case for prosecutors was a friend of the family, Megan Eddy, who testified she dropped an intoxicated Sines off at his car in the Rite Aid parking lot after finding him walking along the street. Eddy said she never saw Sines get behind the wheel of the vehicle, but after driving around the block she found that he and the car had left the area.
Eddy said Sines was angry with his wife for an incident that involved her being out late the night before. Eddy told jurors she received a call from the wife soon after dropping off Sines, when she was told the two were engaged in a violent confrontation. Eddy then dialed 911 and reported the domestic dispute to police before traveling to the couple’s home.
New York State Trooper Christopher Marinelli and Investigator Jason Besset responded to the scene and told the jury they found a car warm to the touch and fresh tire tracks in the driveway. They also testified that Sines was intoxicated.
Besset said the officers split up at the scene; he talked to Sines outside the home and Marinelli went inside to talk to the wife.
“He told me he was drunk and that he had driven home that way,” Besset testified.
Defense Attorney Frederick J. Neroni pointed out that no one else heard the alleged oral admission and that his client was claiming he never said it.
Marinelli also testified that Sines’ wife had admitted to him that she had been “shoved and kicked” by her husband and that the two had not been drinking since he arrived home a short time earlier.
Combining the statements from the three individuals, Marinelli told the jury he decide to arrest Sines for DWI and assault.
“In spite of the fact that all four people that saw him that day said he was intoxicated, including his wife, and that he admitted he was driving the car, and there is tremendous evidence he was driving the car intoxicated – I was shocked and disappointed in the verdict as were the other people involved,” McBride said following the decision.
Before the jury left for deliberations, both McBride and Neroni made closing statements to the panel.
“Can you convict a man of driving drunk if no one saw him driving? If no one even saw him in the car?” Neroni asked the jury. “In most cases a person commits an erratic act behind the wheel, they forget a turn signal or something, but there is no cause in this case to show beyond a reasonable doubt Mr. Sines was in that car under the influence.”
Neroni told jurors Sines was upset in the dispute with his wife and began drinking at the home, not before. Sines himself never took the stand.
McBride noted the difference between direct evidence and circumstantial evidence to jurors, saying no one needed to see Sines behind the wheel in order to conclude he had committed the crime.
“If you look out a window and you see the snow falling to the ground, that’s direct evidence it’s snowing. If you go to bed and it looks like it’s going to snow and you wake up and the ground is covered, then you reasonably know it snowed. That’s circumstantial evidence and it’s good evidence,” he told jurors.
McBride noted in prior court hearings that Sines was arrested for another DWI charge in fall of 2009 in Broome County while his Chenango case was pending. The DA also noted Sines had a prior felony DWI conviction and had done time in state prison for possessing controlled substances. That information was not presented to the jury yesterday.
McBride said he would ask for the maximum possible sentence of one year in local jail at Sines’ assault sentencing.
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