People v. Prince

2017 NY Slip Op 124, 146 A.D.3d 491, 44 N.Y.S.3d 436

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: January 10, 2017
• Docket: 2706 67/13
• Status: Published

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Roger S. Hayes, J.), rendered May 27, 2014, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2V2 to 5 years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant’s legal sufficiency claim is unpreserved and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject it on the merits. We also find that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing the jury’s credibility determinations. The chain of circumstances surrounding defendant’s use of a fraudulent gift card, which had been altered so that a third party would be billed for the transaction, supported the inference that defendant knew it was forged (see e.g. People v Credel, 99 AD3d 541 [1st Dept 2012], lv denied 20 NY3d 1060 [2013]; People v Price, 16 AD3d 323 [1st Dept 2005], Iv denied 5 NY3d 767 [2005]). In two transactions observed by plainclothes police officers, defendant engaged in a pattern of suspicious behavior evincing scienter and consciousness of guilt.

Concur — Andrias, J.P., Moskowitz, Kapnick, Webber and Kahn, JJ.