People v. Mendoza

240 A.D.2d 316, 659 N.Y.S.2d 442

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: June 24, 1997
• Status: Published

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Daniel FitzGerald, J.), rendered September 14, 1995, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of two counts of murder in the second degree, two counts of robbery in the first degree, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him to two concurrent terms of 25 years to life to be served consecutively with two consecutive terms of 121/2 to 25 years to be served concurrently with a term of 5 to 15 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict on the intentional murder count was not against the weight of the evidence. We see no reason to disturb the jury’s credibility determinations (see, People v Gaimari, 176 NY 84, 94).

The trial court did not violate defendant’s attorney-client privilege by permitting cross-examination regarding communications with his prior attorney or by allowing that attorney to testify on the People’s rebuttal case, since defendant waived that privilege (see, People v Shapiro, 308 NY 453, 458), by volunteering his claim that counsel, among other things, had coerced him to testify falsely at the suppression hearing.

Defendant’s contentions concerning the prosecutor’s summation are unpreserved and without merit.

Finally, we perceive no abuse of sentencing discretion. Concur—Ellerin, J. P., Wallach, Nardelli, Rubin and Mazzarelli, JJ.