People v. Richardson
Opinion of the Court
—Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (John Bradley, J.), rendered November 8, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the third degree and grand larceny in the fourth degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 2 to 4 years and IV2 to 3 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly declined to charge the lesser included offense of petit larceny since there was no reasonable view of the evidence to support that charge (People v Scarborough, 49 NY2d 364).
Given the direct contradiction between defendant’s testimony and that of the People’s witnesses, the prosecutor’s cross-examination of defendant concerning the nature of that contradiction was permissible (People v Overlee, 236 AD2d 133, 139, lv denied 91 NY2d 976).
There was a sufficient foundation for the prosecutor’s cross-examination of defendant and summation comments concerning the absence of a potential defense witness, and there was no shifting of the burden of proof (see People v Tankleff, 84 NY2d 992, 994-995).
Defendant’s remaining contentions are unpreserved and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. Were we to review these claims, we would reject them. Concur — Mazzarelli, J.P., Andrias, Saxe, Sullivan and Rosenberger, JJ.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.