People v Bell
2007 NY Slip Op 10033 [46 AD3d 385]
December 20, 2007
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, February 13, 2008


The People of the State of New York,Respondent,
v
Demetrius Bell, Appellant.

[*1]Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York City (Gian S. Kingof counsel), for appellant.

Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Marissa K. Gould of counsel), forrespondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Martin Marcus, J.), rendered March 21, 2005,convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree,and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 14 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. The police had probable cause toarrest defendant based on information obtained from eyewitnesses and the subsequentinvestigation (see People v Rodriquez, 254 AD2d 181 [1998], lv denied 92 NY2d985 [1998]). The arresting officer heard a radio transmission describing a car and its occupants,giving the direction they were heading, and stating that defendant, one of the occupants, waswanted in connection with a homicide. Once the officer observed and recognized defendant in avehicle which matched the description given in the radio transmission, he was entitled under thefellow officer rule to arrest defendant (see People v Ketcham, 93 NY2d 416 [1999]).

The court properly denied defendant's request for a charge on the defense of temporary andlawful possession since there was no reasonable view of the evidence, viewed in a light mostfavorable to defendant (People v Steele, 26 NY2d 526, 529 [1970]), to support such acharge. Even under defendant's version of the events, his conduct was "utterly at odds with anyclaim of innocent possession" (People v Williams, 50 NY2d 1043, 1045 [1980]; seealso People v Snyder, [*2]73 NY2d 900, 901-902 [1989]).

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Lippman, P.J., Mazzarelli,Saxe, Williams and Buckley, JJ.


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