People v Beard

People v Beard 2008 NY Slip Op 08977 [56 AD3d 321] November 18, 2008 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Leon Beard, Appellant.

—[*1] Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Heather L. Holloway of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Lucy Jane Lang of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Charles J. Tejada, J.), rendered March 6, 2006, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, criminal sale of a controlled substance in the fifth degree (two counts), and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of 5 to 10 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing the jury's determinations concerning identification and credibility, including its resolution of minor inconsistencies in testimony. It is a reasonable inference that defendant divested himself of the prerecorded buy money in a manner that escaped detection by any of the officers. Concur—Saxe, J.P., Nardelli, Moskowitz, Renwick and Freedman, JJ.