| People v Galloway |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 02894 [61 AD3d 520] |
| April 16, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Blaine Galloway, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Sheryl Feldman of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Richard D. Carruthers, J.), rendered June 13,2006, as amended June 30, 2006, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of rape in the firstdegree (two counts), criminal sexual act in the first degree and assault in the second degree, andsentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of 18 years,unanimously affirmed.
The court properly permitted the prosecutor to elicit evidence that 10 months before thecharged crimes defendant punched the victim, his girlfriend, over a perceived infidelity. Theevidence constituted highly probative background information that tended to explain therelationship between defendant and the victim (see People v Dorm, 12 NY3d 16 [2009]). This evidence alsoplaced the victim's testimony in a believable context and tended to refute defendant's defense(see People v Steinberg, 170 AD2d 50, 72-74 [1991], affd 79 NY2d 673 [1992]).Defendant's remaining arguments concerning this evidence are unpreserved and we decline toreview them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we also reject them on themerits.
The court's Sandoval ruling, permitting only limited inquiry into defendant'sextensive record, balanced the appropriate factors and was a proper exercise of discretion(see People v Hayes, 97 NY2d 203 [2002]; People v Walker, 83 NY2d 455,458-459 [1994]; People v Pavao, 59 NY2d 282, 292 [1983]).
Defendant's generalized objections did not preserve his challenges to the prosecutor'ssummation comments (see People v Tevaha, 84 NY2d 879 [1994]), and we decline toreview them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we also reject them on the merits(see [*2]People v Overlee, 236 AD2d 133 [1997], lvdenied 91 NY2d 976 [1998]; People v D'Alessandro, 184 AD2d 114, 118-119[1992], lv denied 81 NY2d 884 [1993]). Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Nardelli,Catterson, Moskowitz and Renwick, JJ.