People v Medina
2008 NY Slip Op 02194 [49 AD3d 342]
March 13, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, May 14, 2008


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Noel Medina, Appellant.

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

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Sara M. Zausmer of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Gregory Carro, J.), rendered August 9, 2006, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degrees, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of eight years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing the jury's determinations concerning credibility. There was no reasonable explanation for defendant's actions other than that he was assisting the codefendant in concealing a pistol. Moreover, after the codefendant placed the pistol in the bag that defendant gave him and concealed the gun under nearby shrubs, defendant personally pushed the bag further underneath the shrubs. When viewed in light of the statutory presumption (Penal Law § 265.15 [4]), which was submitted to the jury without objection (see People v Noble, 86 NY2d 814 [1995]), the evidence established the unlawful intent element of second-degree weapon possession. We have considered and rejected defendant's remaining claims. Concur—Lippman, P.J., Andrias, Williams and McGuire, JJ.