People v Rhym

People v Rhym 2008 NY Slip Op 01436 [48 AD3d 301] February 19, 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
Avery Rhym, Appellant.

—[*1] Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York City (Jeffrey R. Senter of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Jared Wolkowitz of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Marcy L. Kahn, J.), rendered November 22, 2006, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender previously convicted of a violent felony, to a term of six years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict rejecting defendant's agency defense was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). Defendant's actions were consistent with that of a steerer (see People v Herring, 83 NY2d 780, 783 [1994]), and there was no evidence suggesting that he was doing a "favor" for the buyer (see People v Lam Lek Chong, 45 NY2d 64, 74-75 [1978], cert denied 439 US 935 [1978]), or "of any conversation between defendant and the undercover purchaser as to why the latter needed or wanted to be represented by an 'agent' instead of simply buying his own drugs" (People v Vaughan, 300 AD2d 104, 104 [2002], lv denied 99 NY2d 633 [2003]). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Williams, Sweeny, Catterson and Moskowitz, JJ.