37 A.D.2d 980 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1971
Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County, rendered December 4, 1970, convicting him of robbery in the first degree, grand larceny in the third degree and assault in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment reversed, on the law, and new trial ordered. The findings of fact below are affirmed. In our opinion, although the testimony was sufficient to enable the jury to find that defendant’s guilt had been established beyond a reasonable doubt,, the case was still close. Under these circumstances it was error to permit the prosecutor to cross-examine defendant with regard to a conviction which he had been specifically informed was that of the defendant’s son (Albert Hasti, Jr.) (People v. Whitmoyer, 24 A D 2d 611). Moreover, by refusing to delay this