People v Paulino

People v Paulino 2008 NY Slip Op 01073 [48 AD3d 250] February 7, 2008 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Noriega Paulino, Appellant.

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

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Sam Wasserman of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bonnie G. Wittner, J.), rendered July 22, 2005, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 4½ to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. There is no basis for disturbing the jury's determinations concerning credibility (see People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495 [1987]). The police found defendant in possession of prerecorded buy money, and there was a satisfactory explanation for their inability to recover additional drugs. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe, Friedman, Catterson and Acosta, JJ.