People v. Lirano

123 A.D.3d 530, 996 N.Y.S.2d 631

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: December 11, 2014
• Docket: 13784 5910/11
• Status: Published

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Roger S. Hayes, J.), rendered September 28, 2012, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth and seventh degrees, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender previously convicted of a violent felony, to an aggregate term of 5½ years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). The police saw defendant walk to an area between the curb and parked cars and make bodily motions, including lowering his hand to the ground, that indicated that defendant was depositing an object on the ground. The police immediately went to the precise spot where such an object would have landed and found a metal box containing drugs. There was no one else at that particular location, nor were any other objects found there. The only reasonable explanation of these events is that defendant dropped the box.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.

Concur— Sweeny, J.P., Renwick, DeGrasse, Clark and Kapnick, JJ.