People v. Van Dyne

Scudder, J. (dissenting).

I respectfully dissent. Defendant was convicted, upon his plea of guilty, of murder in the first degree (Penal Law § 125.27 [1] [a] [vii]). Defendant admitted during the plea colloquy that he fell asleep in his car parked alongside a road after consuming alcohol and smoking cocaine. When he awoke, he discovered that his car would not start, and he decided to wait for the owner of another car also parked alongside the road to return to his car, in order to steal the car. When the owner of that car emerged from the woods after hunting, defendant shot him three times and…