People v Smith

People v Smith 2008 NY Slip Op 01386 [48 AD3d 270] February 14, 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
Anthony Smith, Appellant.

—[*1] Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York City (Carl S. Kaplan of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Joseph Goljan of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ronald A. Zweibel, J.), rendered May 12, 2005, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of auto stripping in the second degree and possession of burglar's tools, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court's Sandoval ruling balanced the appropriate factors and was a proper exercise of discretion (see People v Hayes, 97 NY2d 203 [2002]). The court, which only permitted a small fraction of defendant's extensive record to be elicited, properly allowed the prosecutor to question him about the nature and underlying facts of four of his prior convictions. Although these crimes resembled the instant case, they were highly relevant to defendant's credibility and their probative value outweighed their prejudicial effect. Moreover, the facts of these convictions tended to impeach defendant's credibility with respect to particular assertions he made on direct examination.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Lippman, P.J., Tom, Buckley and Gonzalez, JJ.