People v. Heath — 215 A.D.2d 500

Majority

p. 500

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Corey Heath, Appellant.

[627 NYS2d 569]

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Westchester County (Silverman, J.), rendered July 8, 1991, convicting him of murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution (see, People v Contes, 60 NY2d 620 ), we find that it

p. 501

was legally sufficient to establish the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Moreover, upon the exercise of our factual review power, we are satisfied that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see, CPL 470.15 [5]).

The defendant’s application for a severance of his trial from that of the codefendant was properly denied (People v Mahboubian, 74 NY2d 174 , 184; CPL 200.40 [1]).

The defendant raises a Batson claim (Batson v Kentucky, 476 US 79 ) regarding the People’s peremptory challenges of two potential African-American jurors. Upon our review of the voir dire minutes, we find no impropriety in the court’s finding that these challenges were race-neutral and not pretextual (see, People v Hernandez, 75 NY2d 350 , affd 500 US 352 ).

The sentence imposed is not excessive (see, People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80 ).

We have considered the defendant’s remaining contentions and find them to be without merit. Miller, J. P., Thompson, Pizzuto and Santucci, JJ., concur.

Cases cited

People v. Contes 60 NY2d 620 N.Y. 1983-09-01 p. 500
People v. Mahboubian 74 NY2d 174 N.Y. 1989-06-15 at 184 p. 501
Batson v. Kentucky 476 US 79 SCOTUS 1986-04-30 p. 501
People v. Hernandez 75 NY2d 350 N.Y. 1990-02-22 p. 501
Hernandez v. New York 500 US 352 SCOTUS 1991-05-28 p. 501
People v. Suitte 90 AD2d 80 N.Y. App. Div. 1982-11-22 p. 501