People v. Howard

OPINION OF THE COURT

Read, J.

This appeal calls upon us to apply settled law to the unique facts of a gunpoint robbery. We conclude that defendants Malik Howard (Howard) and Hilbert Stanley (Stanley) (collectively, *392defendants) were not deprived of effective representation at trial by, among other alleged omissions, counsel’s failure to assert as an affirmative defense that one of two weapons allegedly displayed during the robbery “was not a loaded weapon from which a shot, readily capable of producing death or other serious physical injury, could be discharged” (Penal Law § 160.15 [4]). We…