People v. Rodriguez

250 A.D.2d 478, 672 N.Y.S.2d 701, 1998 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6193

Opinion

—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John Collins, J.), rendered January 12, 1996, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 20 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant’s challenge to the court’s reasonable doubt instruction is unpreserved for appellate review as a matter of law, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. Were we to review it, we would find that although “[t]he preferred phrasing to convey the concept and degree of reasonable doubt is illustrated in the Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions”, (People v Cubino, 88 NY2d 998, 1000), the charge, as a whole, conveyed the proper standard concerning the People’s burden of proving defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt (supra, at 1000).

We perceive no abuse of sentencing discretion. Concur— Milonas, J. P., Rosenberger, Nardelli, Wallach and Rubin, JJ.