Brooklyn court find’s man’s sentence too excessive
Requiring a defendant’s robbery sentence to run consecutively was too excessive a punishment the Appellate Division, 2nd Department ruled last month.
A Brooklyn jury convicted Melvin Bunch for the 2009 robbery of men walking home from a summer barbeque. After Bunch was found guilty of robbery in the first and second degrees, the trial judge sentenced him to eight years in prison for the first charge and six years for robbery in the second degree.
Bunch’s appellate attorney, Leila Hull, filed an instant appeal, asserting that the evidence against Bunch was not sufficient to sustain the robbery charges. In particular, Hull challenged witness testimony against Bunch, asserting that due to the poor lighting on street, it would have been impossible for the witnesses to identify Bunch as the robber. Hull also argued that Bunch’s trial attorney was ineffective.