People v Haidara

People v Haidara 2009 NY Slip Op 06726 [65 AD3d 974] September 29, 2009 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, November 4, 2009

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Yacouba Haidara, Appellant.

—[*1] Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (William A. Loeb of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Philip Morrow of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Daniel P. FitzGerald, J.), rendered September 26, 2007, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of course of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, and sentencing him to a term of 12½ to 25 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly received evidence of uncharged crimes to complete the victim's narrative, describe the events leading up to the charged crime and explain the relationship between defendant and the victim (see People v Leeson, 12 NY3d 823, 827 [2009]; People v Dorm, 12 NY3d 16, 19 [2009]), as well as to place the events in question in a believable context and explain the victim's delay in reporting defendant's conduct (see People v Rosario, 34 AD3d 370 [2006], lv denied 8 NY3d 949 [2007]). Although the evidence was extensive, it was not unduly inflammatory and the court's thorough limiting instruction was sufficient to minimize any possible prejudice.

Defendant's arguments concerning the prosecutor's opening statement and summation are unpreserved and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we find no basis for reversal. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe, Moskowitz, Renwick and Richter, JJ.