People v Williams

People v Williams 2010 NY Slip Op 07592 [77 AD3d 557] October 26, 2010 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Jerry Williams, Appellant.

—[*1] Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (David Crow of counsel), and Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York (Elyse Jones Cowgill of counsel), for appellant.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (John B.F. Martin of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Charles H. Solomon, J., at dismissal motion; Marcy L. Kahn, J., at jury trial and sentence), rendered September 29, 2008, convicting defendant of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender, to a term of 3½ years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. Defendant's pattern of conduct warrants the inferences that, acting with the intent that a drug sale occur, he intentionally aided the seller (see Penal Law § 20.00), and that he did so to benefit himself and not merely as a favor to the buyer (see People v Rose, 58 AD3d 544 [2009], lv denied 12 NY3d 859 [2009]).

The evidence before the grand jury did not warrant an instruction on the agency defense.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Tom, J.P., Saxe, Catterson, Renwick and DeGrasse, JJ.