People v. Suarez

OPINION OF THE COURT

These two appeals call upon the Court, once again, to differentiate depraved indifference murder from other categories of homicide. We begin with the facts.

People v Suarez. On February 22, 2000, in their Bronx apartment, defendant Santos Suarez stabbed his girlfriend, Jovanna Gonzalez, three times—once in the throat, once in the chest and once in the abdomen. Suarez fled without summoning assistance, and Gonzalez eventually bled to death.

When Suarez was arrested six days later in Rhode Island, he told police that he had slapped Gonzalez in the face during an argument, and…