| People v Allah |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 07068 [54 AD3d 632] |
| September 25, 2008 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v JisunAllah, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Jason S. Whitehead of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Thomas Farber, J.), rendered February 1, 2006,convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the second degree, and sentencing him, as asecond violent felony offender, to a term of five years, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion in all respects. When, in responseto the officers' inquiry about the whereabouts of a knife, defendant offered to show them theknife and led them into his apartment, defendant manifested his voluntary consent to a search ofthe premises for the purpose of recovering the knife (see People v Gonzalez, 39 NY2d122, 128-131 [1976]). Although the police took defendant back into the hallway outside theapartment, the officer's reentry into the apartment to recover the knife did not constitute a second,separate search; the search of the room from which the knife was recovered was within the scopeof defendant's consent. Although defendant was in custody, the inquiry about the knife's locationwas justified by public safety concerns and thus did not require Miranda warnings(see New York v Quarles, 467 US 649, 659 [1984]; People v Allen, 240 AD2d418 [1997], lv denied 90 NY2d 1009 [1997]; People v Waiters, 121 AD2d 414[1986], lv denied 68 NY2d 760 [1986]).
Defendant made a valid waiver of his right to counsel, after an extensive inquiry by the courtthat established his ability to represent himself and emphasized the dangers and [*2]disadvantages of proceeding without counsel (see People v Providence, 2 NY3d579, 580-581 [2004]). Concur—Tom, J.P., Mazzarelli, Friedman, Williams andMoskowitz, JJ.