Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Nassau County (Orenstein, J.), rendered August 18, 1987, convicting him of grand larceny in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. The appeal brings up for review the denial (O’Shaughnessy, J.), without a hearing, of that branch of the defendant’s omnibus motion which was to suppress identification testimony.
Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the law, by reducing the defendant’s conviction of grand larceny in the third degree to one of petit larceny, and vacating the sentence imposed thereon; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant, on appeal, challenges the summary denial of that branch of his omnibus motion which was to suppress prospective identification testimony. The record, however, establishes that the complainant’s employer and another bystander, both civilians, apprehended the defendant immediately after the commission of the crime and brought him back to the scene whereupon he was identified. Since the "showup” was not a police arranged confrontation for purposes of estab
Nor is there merit to the defendant’s contention that the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress statements made to the individuals who had apprehended him. It is well settled that if a confession is obtained without the knowledge or participation of law enforcement officials, it is fully admissible at trial (see, People v Mirenda,
We do, however, find merit to the defendant’s claim that the 1986 amendment to Penal Law § 155.30 (1), which increased the minimum value of the property stolen required for the crime of grand larceny in the third degree (L 1986, ch 515), should have been applied to him since he was sentenced after the effective date of the amendment (see, People v Behlog,
