162 A.D.2d 327 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1990
Judgment of the Supreme Court, New York County (Harold Rothwax, J., at trial and sentence), rendered on October 12, 1988, convicting defendant, after trial, of robbery in the second degree (Penal Law § 160.10) and attempted robbery in the second degree (Penal Law §§ 110.00, 160.10) and sentencing him to concurrent terms of imprisonment of 7 Vi to 15 years and 3 Vi to 7 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.
We find that the trial court did not err by denying defendant’s motion for a severance. The record reveals that defendant and codefendant, Charles Bryant, committed a gunpoint robbery of a couple on the street. On the eve of trial, after a Sandoval hearing was held, defendant moved for a severance on the ground that if he took the stand, his codefendant, who was not bound by the Sandoval ruling, could cross-examine him as to all his prior convictions. This inhibited him from testifying on his own behalf.
The granting of severance motions is within the discretion of the trial court. "Where proof against the defendants is supplied by the same evidence only the most cogent reasons warrant a severance”. (People v Bornholdt, 33 NY2d 75, 87.) When defendants are tried jointly, the Sandoval ruling with respect to one does not limit the scope of cross-examination by
