People v. Gardner

Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Ulster County (Bruhn, J.), rendered April 9, 1997, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crime of murder in the second degree.

On December 31, 1994, 11-year-old Kathy Gardner, barefoot and clad in pajamas, ran to her neighbor’s home to report that her 67-year-old grandmother, Elizabeth Gardner, had been strangled by her 13-year-old sister, defendant, and defendant’s 15-year-old boyfriend, James Evans. The neighbor immediately called 911, as the result of which members of the Saugerties Police Department were dispatched to the victim’s…