WHITE PLAINS – A 57-year-old former Mount Vernon man who is serving a 25-year-to-life murder sentence, has lost his appeal.
Clifford Ali, now 57, was convicted of the November 2016 murder of his housemate, Martin Lisnak, 74, who was beaten to death.
In his appeal before the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court, Ali maintained the evidence against him was legally insufficient to support his conviction because prosecutors failed to prove he acted with intent to kill Lisnak.
“There is no reasonable view of the evidence that would support a finding that the defendant’s conduct in beating the victim to death with the use of a cane and/or rod, which caused the victim’s blood to splatter on the walls of his room, was merely reckless, or that the defendant intended anything other than to kill the victim,” the appellate justices wrote in a March 31 decision.
