People v. Griffin

303 A.D.2d 182, 755 N.Y.S.2d 241, 2003 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2224

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Edwin Torres, J.), rendered April 10, 2000, 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 seventh degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 10 to 20 years and 1 year, respectively, unanimously modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, to the extent of reducing the sentence on the conviction for criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree to a term of 6 to 12 years, and otherwise affirmed.

The court properly exercised its discretion in denying defendant’s motion for a mistrial, following a police officer’s testimony about defendant’s beeper having been confiscated during a prior arrest. The court prevented any prejudice by striking the offending testimony, and subsequently instructing the jury not to consider answers that had been stricken from the record (see People v Santiago, 52 NY2d 865 [1981]). Furthermore, defendant declined the court’s offer to deliver an additional curative instruction, insisting only upon the drastic remedy of a mistrial (see People v Young, 48 NY2d 995 [1980]).

We find the sentence excessive to the extent indicated. Concur — Tom, J.P., Buckley, Rosenberger, Williams and Friedman, JJ.