People v Miguel Ramos

People v Ramos 2004 NY Slip Op 09708 [13 AD3d 321] December 28, 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
Miguel Ramos, Appellant.

—[*1]

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Michael A. Corriero, J.), rendered June 26, 2002, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 4½ to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's claim that the court improperly denied his challenge for cause to a prospective juror is foreclosed because he did not exhaust all of his peremptory challenges (CPL 270.20 [2]). Although defendant was mistakenly offered a total of 21 peremptory challenges when he was only entitled to 15 such challenges under CPL 270.25 (2) (b), he declined to exercise the last challenge offered and, therefore, failed to exhaust all of his challenges (People v Lynch, 95 NY2d 243 [2000]). In any event, we conclude that the court properly denied defendant's challenge for cause since the panelist did not exhibit a state of mind that was likely to preclude her from rendering an impartial verdict based upon the evidence. Concur—Tom, J.P., Andrias, Sullivan, Williams and Gonzalez, JJ.