People v Smith
2005 NYSlipOp 04438
May 31, 2005
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, July 20, 2005


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Wayne Smith, Appellant.

[*1]

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Carroll, J.), rendered April 28, 2003, convicting him of burglary in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

We disagree with the defendant's contention that he was deprived of his right to testify before the grand jury. CPL 190.50 (5) (a) provides a defendant with the right to testify before the grand jury "if, prior to the filing of any indictment . . . in the matter, he serves upon the district attorney of the county a written notice making such request." Although the defendant claims that he told his attorney of his desire to testify before the grand jury, we find no support in the record that either he or his attorney ever gave the required written notice to the District Attorney. Consequently, his motion to dismiss the indictment pursuant to CPL 190.50 was properly denied (see People v Rogers, 228 AD2d 623 [1996]).

The defendant's claim of error concerning the jury charge on recent and exclusive possession is not preserved for appellate review (see CPL 470.05 [2]; People v Fernandez, 286 AD2d 444 [2001]; People v Vasquez, 11 AD3d 643 [2004]). In any event, any error was harmless in light of the overwhelming proof of the defendant's guilt (see [*2]People v Hutton, 220 AD2d 687, 688 [1995], affd 88 NY2d 363 [1996]; People v Luperena, 159 AD2d 727 [1990]). Florio, J.P., Schmidt, Santucci and Spolzino, JJ., concur.


NYPTI Decisions © 2026 is a project of New York Prosecutors Training Institute (NYPTI) made possible by leveraging the work we've done providing online research and tools to prosecutors.

NYPTI would like to thank New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Senate's Open Legislation Project, New York State Unified Court System, New York State Law Reporting Bureau and Free Law Project for their invaluable assistance making this project possible.

Install the free RECAP extensions to help contribute to this archive. See https://free.law/recap/ for more information.