People v. Agan

── People v. Agan ── Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York Date: May 21, 2026 Category: General <div>People v Agan - 2026 NY Slip Op 03206 <div> skip to main content </div> <div> <p>It appears you are using Adblock. Please disable Adblock to best experience our website.</p> </div> <div> <header> <div> <img src="/reporter/images/nys-logo-white.svg" alt=""> </div> <div> <span title="Law Reporting Bureau Home Page">Law Reporting <br>Bureau <span></span></span> <span>Thomas J.K. Smith, State Reporter</span> <nav> Court Decisions Resources About </nav> </div> <div> <img src="/reporter/images/lrb-seal.png" alt=""> </div> </header> </div> <nav> <ol> <li>Home</li> <li>All Court Decisions</li> <li>Decisions</li> </ol> </nav> <div> <div> <h1>People v Agan</h1> <p>2026 NY Slip Op 03206</p> <p>May 21, 2026</p> <p>Appellate Division, Third Department</p> <p>Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.</p> <p>This decision is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.</p> </div> <div> <p>The People of the State of New York, Respondent,</p> <p>v</p> <p>David T. Agan Jr., Appellant.</p> </div> <p>Decided and Entered:May 21, 2026</p> <p>CR-23-1436</p> <p>Calendar Date: April 17, 2026</p> <p>Before: Aarons, J.P., Reynolds Fitzgerald, Fisher, Powers And Corcoran, JJ.</p> <div> <p>Matthew C. Hug, Albany, for appellant.</p> <p>Christopher Liberati-Conant, District Attorney, Hudson (Brett Michael Fuller of counsel), for respondent.</p> </div> <span>[*1]</span> <p>Appeal from a judgment of the County Court of Columbia County (Richard Koweek, J.), rendered February 2, 2023, which resentenced defendant following his conviction of the crime of murder in the second degree.</p> <p>As set forth in our prior decision in this matter (207 AD3d 861 [3d Dept 2022], <i>lvs denied</i> 38 NY3d 1186 [2022], 39 NY3d 939 [2022]), defendant encountered his wife (hereinafter the deceased victim) in the lobby of a building where they both received mental health counseling and stabbed her at least 35 times with a screwdriver, resulting in her death. Defendant was initially charged in an indictment with murder in the second degree. However, after it emerged that he had been engaged in a sexual relationship with his underage daughter (hereinafter the minor victim) prior to that incident, a superseding indictment was handed up charging defendant with murder in the first degree and numerous offenses relating to the sexual relationship. The upgraded first-degree murder count was premised upon the theory that defendant had killed the deceased victim to prevent her from testifying about his sexual relationship with the minor victim. Defendant was convicted by a jury of murder in the first degree, 15 counts of rape in the third degree, 28 counts of criminal sexual act in the third degree and 92 counts of incest in the third degree. County Court sentenced defendant to an aggregate prison term of a minimum of 186⅓ years to life and a maximum of 389 years to life. Upon appeal, we found that the trial evidence was "insufficient to establish a witness elimination murder," reduced that conviction to "the lesser included offense of murder in the second degree" and remitted solely for resentencing on that count (<i>id.</i> at 867). The court resentenced defendant to 25 years to life in prison on the conviction of murder in the second degree, to be served consecutively to the sentences imposed upon his other convictions. Defendant appeals.</p> <p>We are unpersuaded by defendant's argument that the sentence should be reduced in the interest of justice. Although the trial evidence did not establish that defendant had killed the deceased victim with the motive of eliminating a witness against him, it did establish that he had brutally, and intentionally