People v. Vega

278 A.D.2d 39, 717 N.Y.S.2d 160, 2000 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12663

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (William Wetzel, J.), rendered June 17, 1998, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third and fourth degrees, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 10 to 20 years, unanimously modified, on the law, to the extent of reducing the sentence on the fourth-degree possession conviction to a term of 71/2 to 15 years, and otherwise affirmed.

The court properly exercised its discretion in imposing reasonable limits on defendant’s cross-examination of the People’s witnesses (see, People v Melcherts, 225 AD2d 357, lv denied 88 NY2d 881). Specifically, the court properly precluded defendant from questioning a police witness about details of unrelated arrests made on other occasions (see, People v Johnson, 228 AD2d 389, lv denied 88 NY2d 1022), and properly limited repetitious inquiries of limited probative value.

The court properly exercised its discretion in denying defendant’s request for a mistrial following the inadvertent elicitation of a brief reference to defendant’s unsavory nickname.

As the People correctly concede, the maximum permissible sentence for defendant’s fourth-degree possession conviction is 7V2 to 15 years, and we modify accordingly. We perceive no basis for reduction of sentence on the other third-degree possession conviction. Concur — Rosenberger, J. P., Williams, Andrias, Buckley and Friedman, JJ.