| People v Johnson |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 01577 [60 AD3d 425] |
| March 5, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v James Johnson, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Alice Wiseman of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward J. McLaughlin, J.), renderedFebruary 22, 1995, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the second degree, andsentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 7½ to 15 years, unanimouslyaffirmed.
Defendant did not preserve his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence concerning theuse of force, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, wealso reject it on the merits. One of defendant's accomplices used extensive force against thevictim, to a degree that was more than enough to satisfy the statute (see Penal Law§ 160.00).
Defendant's objection to the receipt in evidence of a nontestifying codefendant's pleaallocution was insufficiently specific to preserve defendant's present Confrontation Clause claim,and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we find thatalthough the allocution was inadmissible under Crawford v Washington (541 US 36[2004]), the error was harmless under the standard for constitutional error (see People vCrimmins, 36 NY2d 230, 241 [1975]). In this case where defendant was arrested at the sceneof a robbery that had been witnessed by a police officer, there was overwhelming evidence ofdefendant's guilt and the inadmissible allocution added little to the People's case.
The record does not establish that defendant's sentence was based on any improper criteria,and we perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Gonzalez, J.P., Sweeny,Renwick and Freedman, JJ.