| People v Jerome |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 01968 [49 AD3d 556] |
| March 4, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Jeffrey Jerome, Appellant. |
—[*1] Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano, JeanetteLifschitz, and Jessica L. Melton of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Buchter,J.), rendered March 2, 2005, convicting him of assault in the second degree, unlawfulimprisonment in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree,upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. By decision and order of this Court dated November28, 2006 (see People v Jerome, 34AD3d 835 [2006]), the appeal was held in abeyance and the matter was remitted to theSupreme Court, Queens County, to hear and report on the defendant's challenge to theprosecutor's exercise of peremptory challenges against black male venirepersons, and if thedefendant made a prima facie showing of purposeful exclusion, then to hear and report on theprosecutor's exercise of peremptory challenges. The Supreme Court has filed its report.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The trial court's determination that the explanations provided by the People for exercisingperemptory challenges to four black male venirepersons were not pretextual is supported by therecord and will not be disturbed on appeal (see Batson v Kentucky, 476 US 79 [1986];Hernandez v New York, 500 US 352, 359 [1991]; People v Caraballo, 238 AD2d517 [1997]). Thus, the defendant's Batson challenge was properly denied. Mastro, J.P.,Skelos, Lifson and Ritter, JJ., concur.