People v Todd Garrett

People v Garrett 2004 NY Slip Op 09206 [13 AD3d 131] December 9, 2004 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, February 23, 2005

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Todd Garrett, Appellant.

—[*1]

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Gregory Carro, J.), rendered November 20, 2002, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 5 to 10 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. The evidence warranted the conclusion that defendant was a participant in a drug-selling operation based in an apartment, and that he was one of the persons in constructive possession of the drugs stored in that apartment (see People v Bundy, 90 NY2d 918 [1997]). The evidence also established defendant's guilt under the drug factory presumption (see Penal Law § 220.25 [2]). Contrary to defendant's claims, the evidence satisfied the "open view" and "close proximity" requirements of the presumption. Concur—Nardelli, J.P., Mazzarelli, Sullivan, Friedman and Gonzalez, JJ.