People v Roundtree

People v Roundtree 2007 NY Slip Op 02473 [38 AD3d 385] March 22, 2007 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, May 9, 2007

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Juel Roundtree, Appellant.

—[*1] Stanley Neustadter, Cardozo Appeals Clinic, New York (Mark Abramson of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Elizabeth A. Squires of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Edwin Torres, J.), rendered November 15, 2005, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2½ to 5 years, unanimously affirmed.

While the court should have avoided singling out the intoxication defense as a matter upon which the jury should "proceed with caution," the charge, viewed as a whole, conveyed the proper standards and did not deprive defendant of a fair trial (see People v Fields, 87 NY2d 821 [1995]). The court carefully instructed the jury on the People's burden of proof, and it never suggested that defendant had any such burden (compare People v Velazquez, 77 AD2d 845 [1980], lv denied 51 NY2d 884 [1980]), or that the court had any opinion on the intoxication issue. Defendant's argument concerning the court's supplemental charge is unpreserved and without merit. Concur—Tom, J.P., Andrias, Sullivan, Williams and Gonzalez, JJ.