People v Williams
2007 NY Slip Op 09614 [46 AD3d 585]
December 4, 2007
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, February 13, 2008


The People of the State of New York,Respondent,
v
Dominick Williams, Appellant.

[*1]Lynn W. L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Steven R. Bernhard of counsel), for appellant.

Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove, Morgan J. Dennehy,and Marie-Claude P. Wrenn of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from an amended judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County(Chun, J.), rendered August 31, 2005, convicting him of criminal possession of a weapon in thethird degree and resisting arrest, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the amended judgment is affirmed.

The defendant did not preserve for appellate review his contention that the trial court failedto properly admonish the jury when it released the jurors prior to two overnight recesses(see CPL 270.40, 310.10 [2]; People v Bonaparte, 78 NY2d 26, 32 [1991]; People v Lumpkin, 39 AD3d 671[2007]; People v Taylor, 29 AD3d713, 714 [2006]). Contrary to the defendant's contention, the failure to give an instructionpursuant to CPL 270.40 and 310.10 is not a mode of proceedings error that need not be preserved(see People v Bonaparte, 78 NY2d at 31 n; People v Kelly, 11 AD3d 133, 144 [2004], affd 5 NY3d116 [2005]; People v Jackson, 230 AD2d 921 [1996]). In any event, although the court'sadmonishments to the jury were less than complete (see CJI2d[NY], Jury SeparationDuring Deliberations [rev Apr. 4, 2003]), the defendant's contention that the court's omissiondeprived him of due process is without merit since, considered in the aggregate, the court'sadmonishments to the jury during its preliminary instructions and throughout the trial"adequately conveyed to the jury its function, duties and conduct" (People v Fleming, 270AD2d 498, 498 [2000]).

Viewing defense counsel's representation of the defendant in its entirety, the [*2]defendant received meaningful representation (see People vBaldi, 54 NY2d 137, 146-147 [1981]), which was not vitiated by defense counsel's failure toobject to the inadequacy of the court's admonishments prior to the two overnight recesses (seePeople v Crimmins, 36 NY2d 230, 241-242 [1975]; People v Tuma, 119 AD2d 606[1986]). Goldstein, J.P., Fisher, Carni and McCarthy, JJ., concur.


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