People v Mendoza

People v Mendoza 2009 NY Slip Op 00633 [59 AD3d 182] February 5, 2009 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Anthony Mendoza, Appellant.

—[*1] Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Seon Jeong Lee of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Christopher P. Marinelli of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Bruce Allen, J.), entered June 27, 2007, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the first and second degrees, and also convicting him, upon his plea of guilty, of two counts of attempted robbery in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of 20 years to life, 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 credibility. There was ample evidence establishing that defendant took the victim's property at knifepoint and also caused physical injury.

Defendant's constitutional challenge to his sentencing as a persistent violent felony offender is without merit (see Almendarez-Torres v United States, 523 US 224 [1998]). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Moskowitz, Renwick and Freedman, JJ.