People v. Diaz

235 A.D.2d 319, 652 N.Y.S.2d 959, 1997 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 493

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (George Covington, J.), rendered October 26, 1994, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 9 to 18 years, unanimously modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, to reduce the sentence to concurrent terms of 6½ to 13 years, and otherwise affirmed.

The trial court properly sustained objections to collateral, irrelevant and potentially confusing questions posed by defendant on cross-examination of the police chemist (Delaware v Van Arsdall, 475 US 673, 679; People v Schwartzman, 24 NY2d 241, 244, cert denied 396 US 846).

Defendant was properly tried in absentia (People v Parker, 57 NY2d 136).

We find the sentence to be excessive to the extent indicated. Concur—Milonas, J. P., Ellerin, Nardelli, Williams and Mazzarelli, JJ.