People v Bombard

Holding The court reversed the burglary conviction due to insufficient evidence proving the defendant had the intent to commit a crime at the moment of entry. It also ordered a new trial on the criminal trespass charge because the trial court erroneously precluded evidence of the defendant’s state of mind regarding permission to enter.

The court’s words

The element of 'intent to commit a crime therein' is assessed at the moment of unlawful entry into the particular area

2026 NY Slip Op 06175, at the official text

the evidence failed to show that defendant 'knowingly and unlawfully enter[ed] a building with the contemporaneous intent to commit a crime therein'

2026 NY Slip Op 06175, at the official text

this proof would have been relevant and admissible for a nonhearsay purpose, i.e., to establish defendant's state of mind when he entered the workshop

2026 NY Slip Op 06175, at the official text