People v. Santiago

—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County, rendered August 30, 1977, convicting defendant after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, reversed, on the law, and case remanded for a new trial. It is well settled that a refusal to charge a lesser included crime is warranted only where every reasonable hypothesis but guilt of the higher crime is excluded. (People v Johnson, 45 NY2d 546, 549; CPL 300.50, subds 1, 2.) At trial, the defendant testified that the decedent had slashed him with a *540broken beer bottle. Defendant further testified that he had swung a machete in an attempt to knock…