People v. Brown

—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Joseph Mazur, J.) rendered May 29, 1990, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him as a second felony offender to a term of AVz to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.

Police, on anti-narcotics patrol, observed defendant from a rooftop as defendant engaged in multiple hand-to-hand exchanges. After one exchange, defendant walked to a nearby firebox, pulled out a brown bag, extracted something from the bag, and returned the bag to the firebox. Moments later, police responded, a patdown of defendant recovered a roll of cash, and the bag in the firebox was found to contain 82 vials of crack. Under the standards set forth in People v Bleakley ( 69 NY2d 490 , 495), defendant’s guilt was proved beyond a reasonable doubt by overwhelming evidence, and the verdict was not against the weight of that evidence. Defendant’s evidentiary challenges, in part, are unpreserved; they are all meritless. Testimony that defendant had engaged in hand-to-hand exchanges, and references to the area as a drug prone location, provided narrative information explaining why police targeted defendant for observation (People v Rivera, 186 AD2d 504 , 505). Since defendant never requested a limiting instruction at trial, that claim also is unpreserved (People v Diaz, 170 AD2d 395 , lv denied 78 NY2d 954 ). By failing to challenge the competence of trial counsel pursuant to CPL 440.10, defendant failed to provide this Court with a reviewable record. On the