*1Defendant appeals from the judgment of the Supreme Court, Bronx County (Robert A. Neary, J.), rendered November 2, 2016, convicting him, after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, and imposing sentence.*2
In this homicide prosecution, we are asked to determine whether the trial court erred in denying defendant’s request to instruct the jury on the defense of justification. We find that, viewing the evidence at trial in the light most favorable to defendant, a jury could conclude that defendant feared for his life, and reasonably believed deadly physical force was necessary to defend himself against the deceased’s imminent use of deadly physical force. Under the circumstances here, the court’s failure to give the justification charge constitutes reversible error, and the case must be remanded for a new trial.Defendant Darryl Brown was charged with murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the first degree, and criminal use of a firearm in the first degree, based on allegations that he fatally shot Vonde Cabbagestalk on March 20, 2014. The evidence at trial established the following. On the day of the incident, defendant lived with his daughter in apartment 1B at 739 East 242nd Street in the Bronx. On the afternoon of that day, Yvette Flores, who lived directly across the hall in apartment 1A, heard a loud voice arguing. Flores looked through the peephole in her door and saw defendant and his daughter, who was holding a child, standing in front of their apartment with a younger man. Flores heard defendant and the younger man arguing, but was unable to hear what they were saying. Flores then saw the two men walk off together toward the direction of the building’s lobby and out of her line of sight. Defendant’s daughter remained at the apartment door with the child.Although Flores could no longer see the men after they walked off, she heard them arguing and cursing, but did not hear any specific threats. She heard defendant’s daughter yell, “[N]o daddy no,” followed immediately by a loud boom. Flores initially moved away from her door, but returned to look through the peephole, where she saw defendant, his daughter and the child go into their apartment. Flores went into the hallway and saw a man lying by the front door of the lobby, motionless, and called 911. Flores testified that she did not see the actual shooting incident and never saw a gun or any other weapon during the encounter.Raymond Wolf, a postal carrier, was delivering mail to the building that afternoon. Two young men who were standing in the lobby let Wolf in. Wolf, who was listening to music on his headphones, went off to the side of the lobby to place the mail into the mailboxes. At some point,
