The Last Ride to Canandaigua

On the evening of December 30, 1970, the Defendant and the co-defendant were drinking in a Rochester, New York bar when they noticed the victim displaying $100 bills. The victim was severely intoxicated — the bartender had already refused to serve him. When the victim asked other patrons for a ride to Canandaigua, the Defendant and the co-defendant, having already agreed between themselves to rob him, offered to drive him. The three visited two more bars, at one of which the victim was refused service again. When they finally set out, the co-defendant drove while the Defendant demanded the victim's money, slapping him repeatedly. The Defendant forced the victim to lower his trousers and remove his boots to prove he had no more cash. After taking all his money, the two men forced the victim out of the car onto the shoulder of an unlit, rural two-lane highway. The victim fell to the ground — his trousers around his ankles, his shirt rolled up, his boots placed on the shoulder, but his eyeglasses remaining in the Defendant's car. The temperature was approximately 4°F. Strong winds blew snow across the road. The nearest shelter was a gas station a quarter mile away on the opposite side of the highway. Approximately thirty minutes later, an oncoming driver, a college student driving a pickup truck, struck the victim — who had wandered into the highway — and killed him.