People v. Cruciani

Fuchsberg J.

On this appeal from a conviction of manslaughter in the second degree, the proof showing, among other things, that defendant Cruciani injected Margaret Heur with heroin (1) when, in his own words, she was already "completely bombed out on downs” (depressants like morphine into which heroin is rapidly converted by the body’s metabolic processes), (2) at a time when she had lost the capacity to "walk or talk straight”, and (3) despite his admission of awareness that there was a substantial possibility that a further injection in her then drug-saturated state would cause her to "fall…