625 N.Y.S.2d 506 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1995
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Mary McGowan Davis, J.), rendered June 5, 1991, convicting defendant, after jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 5 to 10 years, unanimously affirmed.
Closure of the courtroom was justified by the undercover officer’s Hinton hearing testimony that he had been engaged in some 150 drug operations in the vicinity of defendant’s
Viewing the evidence in the light most, favorable to the People, the evidence was legally sufficient and the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. The issues raised by defendant concerning the testing methodology and conclusions of the police chemist raised issues of credibility that were properly placed before the jury, and we find no reason to disturb its determination (see, People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495). The chemist’s conclusions were not invalidated by the failure to perform a qualitative analysis since there was no element of weight in the crime charged (Penal Law § 220.39 [1]; see, People v Diaz, 157 AD2d 531, lv denied 75 NY2d 918; People v Rodriguez, 203 AD2d 92). Nor was it required that the present sample be compared against a known standard (People v Rolon, 172 AD2d 252, 253, lv denied 78 NY2d 926). Concur—Murphy, P. J., Rosenberger, Kupferman, Nardelli and Mazzarelli, JJ.