P. v. Duronio
Defendant Matthew Duronio appeals from a judgment of conviction after a jury found him guilty of first degree murder and attempted voluntary manslaughter. Duronio used a knife to stab two victims, one of whom died, during a fight that was the culmination of a night of violence between two groups of young men.
On appeal, Duronio contends that the prosecutor committed prejudicial misconduct during her rebuttal argument by commenting on his failure to testify. He also argues that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of a prior uncharged bad act because the prior incident was not sufficiently similar to his conduct in this case to prove his intent on the night of the stabbings. Duronio maintains that the court's admission of this evidence was unfairly prejudicial in that evidence of the prior incident made the jurors believe that he was "more likely to commit premeditated murder to avenge vandalism to his car." Finally, Duronio contends that the cumulative effect of these errors requires reversal.
We conclude that Duronio forfeited the misconduct issue by failing to object to the prosecutor's comments at the time of trial. With respect to Duronio's contention that if this issue is forfeited on appeal, then his attorney provided ineffective assistance by failing to object, we conclude that there is no reasonable possibility that the outcome of the trial would have been different but for defense counsel's failure to object.
As to Duronio's complaint that the trial court should not have admitted evidence of a prior bad act, we agree with Duronio that the trial court abused its discretion in determining that evidence of that incident could be used to prove Duronio's intent to kill during his commission of the charged offenses. Nevertheless, we conclude that the error in admitting the evidence does not require reversal of the judgment.
Finally, we conclude that any cumulative effect of the complained-of errors does not require reversal. We therefore affirm the judgment of the trial court.
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