People v. Cox

—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Bonnie Wittner, J.), rendered February 25, 1992, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree and sentencing him to a term of fifteen years to life imprisonment, unanimously modified on the law and facts to reduce the conviction to manslaughter in the first degree, vacate the sentence, and remand for resentencing, and otherwise affirmed.

Defendant, a habitual crack user, was convicted of the murder of his friend and housemate, Donald Simmons, a habitual drinker. Each had been partaking of his particular preferred substance,…