People v. Rivera
Opinion of the Court
—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Marrus, J.), rendered April 10, 1997, convicting him of conspiracy in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
During the trial which lasted more than five weeks, a sworn juror became unavailable for continued service by reason of illness. Contrary to the defendant’s contention, the court conducted a reasonably thorough inquiry and recited on the
The defendant has not preserved for appellate review his contentions that the trial court committed reversible error when it relegated the accomplice status of a particular witness to the jury for resolution as a question of fact, and that the People failed to present sufficient non-accomplice testimony to corroborate that witness’s testimony (see, CPL 470.05 [2]). In any event, the defendant’s contentions have no merit. Where different inferences can be reasonably drawn from the evidence produced at trial, the question of whether a particular person is an accomplice is a question of fact for the jury (see, People v Cobos, 57 NY2d 798; People v Jeffries, 122 AD2d 281; People v Tusa, 137 AD2d 151). Here, the court properly so charged the jury and the witness’s testimony was sufficiently corroborated (see, People v Daniels, 37 NY2d 624).
The defendant’s sentence was not excessive (see, People v Suitte, 90 AD2d 80). Mangano, P. J., Thompson, Krausman and Feuerstein, JJ., concur.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.