People v Valdez
2007 NY Slip Op 05554 [41 AD3d 316]
June 26, 2007
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, August 15, 2007


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Luis Valdez, Appellant.

[*1] Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Robert S. Dean of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Ameer Benno of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Arlene Goldberg, J.), rendered April 1, 2005, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of three years to life, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. There is no basis for disturbing the jury's determinations concerning credibility (see People v Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490, 495 [1987]). The evidence provided reasonable assurances of the identity and unchanged condition of the drugs in question (see People v Julian, 41 NY2d 340, 343 [1977]), and the minor irregularities in the police paperwork do not warrant a different conclusion. Concur—Tom, J.P., Mazzarelli, Saxe, Williams and Malone, JJ.