People v. Lozado

300 A.D.2d 147, 751 N.Y.S.2d 728, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12466

Opinion

—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Phylis Skloot Bamberger, J.), rendered August 26, 1999, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of intimidating a witness in the first degree and assault in the second degree and sentencing him to concurrent indeterminate prison terms of 10 to 20 years and 3¥2 to 7 years, respectively, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

Defendant’s absence from an off-the-record conference of which the subject was the scope and substance of a witness’s identification testimony, i.e., a material stage of the trial at which defendant’s presence would have had a substantial effect on his ability to defend against the charges, requires reversal of his conviction (People v Casiano, 294 AD2d 277 [reversing conviction of codefendant on grounds of his absence from same conference], lv denied 98 NY2d 767). Concur — Williams, P.J., Ellerin, Rubin, Marlow and Gonzalez, JJ.