People v Willie Butler

People v Butler 2006 NY Slip Op 00453 [25 AD3d 499] January 26, 2006 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Willie Butler, Appellant.

—[*1]

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert H. Straus, J.), rendered April 26, 2004, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to a term of 20 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. There is no basis for disturbing the jury's determinations concerning credibility (see People v Gaimari, 176 NY 84, 94 [1903]).

The court's Sandoval ruling balanced the appropriate factors and was a proper exercise of discretion (see People v Hayes, 97 NY2d 203 [2002]; People v Walker, 83 NY2d 455, 458-459 [1994]; People v Pavao, 59 NY2d 282, 292 [1983]). The court permitted inquiry only into a portion of defendant's extensive criminal record, and the theft-related convictions about which the court permitted inquiry were highly probative of defendant's credibility.

Defendant's constitutional challenge to the procedure under which he was sentenced as a persistent violent felony offender is unpreserved for appellate review and, in any event, is without merit (see People v Rosen, 96 NY2d 329 [2001], cert denied 534 US 899 [2001]). Defendant's mandatory sentence was based entirely on his prior convictions (see Almendarez-Torres v United States, 523 US 224 [1998]). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe, Nardelli, Sweeny and McGuire, JJ.