Appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court (Lamont, J.), rendered September 15, 2011 in Albany County, upon a verdict convicting defendant of the crimes of attempted criminal sexual act in the first degree (two counts) and endangering the welfare of a child.
Defendant was charged by indictment with two counts of attempted criminal sexual act in the first degree, two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, stemming from allegations that he sexually assaulted a 10-year-old child (hereinafter the victim) in the bathroom of an apartment that he shared with the victim’s family. Following a jury trial, he was acquitted of the sexual abuse charges and convicted of the remaining charges. Supreme Court sentenced him to an aggregate prison term of seven years, followed by 15 years of postrelease supervision. Defendant appeals.
We affirm. Defendant’s convictions are supported by legally sufficient evidence and are not against the weight of the evidence. To support the convictions, the People were required to prove, respectively, that defendant attempted to engage in oral sexual conduct with the victim “[b]y forcible compulsion” (Penal Law § 130.50 [1]), that the victim was under the age of 11 (see Penal Law § 130.50 [3]), and that defendant “knowingly act[ed] in a manner likely to be injurious to the physical, mental or moral welfare of a child less than [17] years old” (Penal Law § 260.10 [1]). The victim testified that she was in the bathroom, preparing for bed, when defendant forced open the door, pushed her and stifled her calls for help by covering her mouth. She stated that defendant pulled down her pants and his pants, told her to suck his penis and tried to put his penis in her mouth before her mother entered the bathroom and interrupted the attack.
Although a different result would not have been unreasonable, the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. Defendant contends that the victim’s testimony was unworthy of belief because it was inconsistent in several respects with her pretrial statements, and because no physical evidence was found at the scene to support some of her testimony about details of the incident. However, inconsistencies and contradictions are not uncommon in the testimony of young witnesses (see People v Izzo,
We reject defendant’s claim that he was deprived of a fair trial by Molineux violations. Defendant moved for a mistrial after the victim testified that defendant brandished a knife during the confrontation with her father. Supreme Court denied the motion, finding that the disclosure was unanticipated, as the People argued, and that the testimony was permissible. We agree. The testimony was inextricably interwoven with the charged crimes, relevant to defendant’s state of mind, and occurred so closely in time after the conduct for which defendant was being tried that its probative value outweighs any potential prejudice (see People v Buchanan,
Finally, in fashioning the sentence, Supreme Court expressly considered defendant’s youth, his lack of criminal history, and his status as a refugee and a legal immigrant. The sentence imposed was near the lower end of the permissible term of imprisonment, and significantly less than the 15-year sentence requested by the People. We find no abuse of discretion or extraordinary circumstances warranting modification in the interest of justice (see People v Williams,
Rose, J.P., Spain and Egan Jr., JJ, concur. Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
Notes
The victim, her parents and defendant are immigrants with limited command of the English language.
