Appeal denied in bow-and-arrow killing

ALBANY -- Thomas Sirico wasn't too intoxicated to know what he was doing when he fatally fired an arrow into the chest of a neighbor, New York's highest court ruled Tuesday.

In a 6-1 decision, the state Court of Appeals rejected Sirico's claim that he was so intoxicated "as to be unable to form" an intent to kill. At his trial, Sirico testified that he consumed 24 to 30 ounces of whiskey and ingested a Xanax pill before threatening friends with a bow and arrow and then killing Juan Carlos Munoz, 27, on Jan. 8, 2006.

But the court said his actions that day were intentional.

"Indeed, the uncontradicted record evidence, including [Sirico's] own account, supports the conclusion that his overall behavior on the day of the incident was purposeful," Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman wrote for the court.

Judge Theodore Jones cast the dissenting vote, arguing that the trial court judge should have allowed a jury to consider whether Sirico's intoxication level "was sufficient to affect [Sirico's] ability to form the necessary criminal intent."

Sirico had said the trial court erred in its instructions to the jury and had asked for a new trial.

Sirico was sentenced in January 2007 to 25 years to life in prison; he is being held at Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone, near the Canadian border.

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His attorney, John M. Dowden of the Legal Aid Society, said Tuesday that he was disappointed in the decision but did not criticize the court.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Anne E. Oh, who argued the case before the court, called it a good decision.

"The evidence of the defendant's intentional conduct was overwhelming," Oh said. "Had the jurors accepted the claim that he was so intoxicated he couldn't form intent, it would have absolved him of any responsibility."