People v. Diaz

294 A.D.2d 225, 741 N.Y.S.2d 858, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5339

Opinion

—Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Marcy Kahn, J.), rendered August 30, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of grand larceny in the fourth degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2 to 4 years, unanimously affirmed.

The trial court properly denied defendant’s requests to proceed pro se at trial. Defendant engaged in seriously disruptive behavior (see, People v McIntyre, 36 NY2d 10, 17), which was documented by the court on the record. In addition to interruptions made in its presence, the trial court had learned that defendant’s behavior at a hearing before another justice had been so disruptive that it provided support for a severance motion by a codefendant. Furthermore, defendant’s requests to represent himself were equivocal. As the record makes clear, defendant was seeking hybrid representation to which he was not entitled (see, People v Mirenda, 57 NY2d 261, 265-266; People v Garcia, 69 NY2d 903). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Sullivan, Ellerin, Wallach and Gonzalez, JJ.