Trial hurt by CSI society? Yonkers gun trial.

[Oswegowind 17]

I found the following article while scanning the Yonkers news on LoHud.com today.

This makes good police work go for naught! It seems as though the jury based their decision on CSI again, depending on DNA. The gun was in the car, are you telling me that they would not have used it? Ridiculous again! As well, that last portion of the article states that Frazier was found guilty of murder and the conviction was overturned because he was high on PCP and it was originally not admitted as evidence...So, it is not murder if you are high??? A murderer with a gun in his car....hmmmm! Not Guilty! Right!

Yonkers man with two prior felonies avoids third strike when jury finds him not guilty of possessing gun

By JONATHAN BANDLER

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: September 21, 2007)

A Yonkers man with two prior felonies avoided a third strike yesterday when a jury found him not guilty of possessing a gun that was found in his wife's car.

Darnell Frazier, whose previous convictions were for drugs and criminally negligent homicide, was also cleared of marijuana and driving charges related to the Oct. 7 arrest.

Frazier and three friends - including Jason Phillips, the rapper known as Jadakiss - were arrested that morning at Elm Street and Nepperhan Avenue in Yonkers after police found a loaded .38-caliber handgun in the car. Police claimed they approached the car because they smelled marijuana coming from inside.

But prosecutor Heide Mason faced an uphill battle in the case after tests revealed that DNA of three men was found on the gun - but not the three who were indicted.

The District Attorney's Office stuck with it because of the legal presumption that those in a car with a gun are all in possession of the weapon. Phillips and Kristian Smith are awaiting trial.

In acquitting Frazier of driving while ability impaired by drugs and first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation, the jury apparently did not believe that the car had been running when the officers approached it.

Because of his prior felonies, Frazier could have faced up to 12 years to life if the jury had found him guilty of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

"This was an incomplete investigation because they didn't check the DNA of the fourth person in the car and they did no field sobriety tests at the scene," said Frazier's lawyer, Barry Warhit.

Frazier was paroled in 2005 after serving three years in prison for stabbing to death a man who had insulted his rapping. He had originally been found guilty of murder but his conviction was overturned because the judge had not allowed the defense to present evidence that the victim was high on PCP.

Warhit became his lawyer for the second trial. The jury rejected his claim of self-defense, but convicted him only of criminally negligent homicide instead of the more serious murder and manslaughter charges.

Frazier, 25, disputed most of the police account of how they found the gun and said he had no idea how it got in the car. He said he feels like Yonkers police have targeted him because of his past trouble.

"I definitely have to live a more productive, positive life so I don't give them a chance to go after me again," he said.

[JCESU 20]

The CSI phenomenon is cause to make you vomit when you are off on a job and people are asking when CSI is arriving to (insert technological wonder here). Its not enough with multi tasking with limited resources in the middle of the night so I guess people have to exlpain to us how to do our job. What would we do without these people. Don't know if I could get through a tour! I would like to meet David Caruso someday so I can give him a big foot in the bum. So just add the TV/Film industry to the list of reasons the jury pools are able to arrive at jury nullification and let the mutants walk.

[20y2 43]

Ballistics and DNA testing are now standard practice on all firearms cases in Westchester.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

The CSI Effect has a distinct impact on most criminal cases today....most members of the jury expect to see some kind of forensic wonder to help them put away a violent offender.

At least that is what Syracuse University textbook said.

[Oswegowind 17]

My feeling is this, if you have a gun in your car, you intend to use it if need be. Especially if it is an illegal hand gun. If there are more than 1 person in the car they are each responsible for it if it is not on one's person. Matching DNA and stuff on an unused gun doesn't mean that we haven't prevented a crime. If we catch them before they kill someone, maybe they shouldn't do as much time but maybe they need to learn a lesson and not just be cut loose! Society needs to realize that you can't only fight crime by solving it once it has happened.