People v. Rankins

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Ingram, J.), rendered March 12, 2008, convicting him of assault in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Justice Covello has been substituted for the late Justice Fisher {see 22 NYCRR 670.1 [c]).

Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered.

The complainant was assaulted by four men who followed him down a street and into a subway station. The short altercation that ensued concluded when one of the assailants, not the defendant, pulled out a knife and stabbed the…