People v. Borkowski

Judgment unanimously affirmed.

Memorandum: Defendant appeals from a judgment convicting him after a jury trial of attempted rape in the first degree and unlawful imprisonment in the second degree. We reject his contention that the prosecutor’s exercise of a peremptory challenge constitutes a Batson violation (see, Batson v Kentucky, 476 US 79 ). County Court properly determined that the prosecutor offered a race-neutral explanation for her challenge, i.e., that the Black prospective juror appeared indecisive and likely to be easily led by other jurors (see, State v Murray, 184 Ariz 9 , 24-25, 906 P2d 542 , 557-558, cert denied 518 US 1010 ; People v Crittenden, 9 Cal 4th 83 , 116-118, 885 P2d 887 , 903-905, cert denied 516 US 849 ; State v Gonzalez, 206 Conn 391 , 404-405, 538 A2d 210 , 217). The court’s determination is entitled to great deference (see, People v Hernandez, 75 NY2d 350 , 356, affd 500 US 352 ), and we perceive no basis to disturb it.

We also reject the contention that the prosecutor’s allegedly improper comments during summation deprived defendant of a fair trial. The comments “were within the wide rhetorical bounds granted to the prosecutor to comment * * * in response to defense counsel’s summation” (People v Price, 144 AD2d 1013 , lv denied 73 NY2d 895 ) and, in any event, were not so egregious that defendant was deprived of a fair trial (see, People v Rubin, 101 AD2d 71 , 77; cf., People v Mott, 94 AD2d 415 , 419).

Defendant failed to preserve for our review his contentions that the conviction of unlawful imprisonment in the second degree merged with the conviction of attempted rape in the

Present — Pine, J. P., Hayes, Wisner, Balio and Fallon, JJ.