| People v Bell |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 09299 [68 AD3d 545] |
| December 15, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v JamelBell, Appellant. |
—[*1] Jamel Bell, appellant pro se. Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Sheryl Feldman of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (William A. Wetzel, J.), rendered September17, 2007, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the second degree, and sentencinghim, as a persistent violent felony offender, to a term of 16 years to life, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant's challenges to the prosecutor's summation are unpreserved and we decline toreview them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we find that the challengedremarks were generally responsive to the defense summation, and that while some commentswere ill-phrased, they were not so egregious as to deprive defendant of a fair trial (see Peoplev Overlee, 236 AD2d 133 [1997], lv denied 91 NY2d 976 [1998]; People vD'Alessandro, 184 AD2d 114, 118-119 [1992], lv denied 81 NY2d 884 [1993]).
Defendant's challenge to the constitutionality of his adjudication as a persistent violentfelony offender is without merit (see Almendarez-Torres v United States, 523 US 224[1998]; People v Leon, 10 NY3d122, 126 [2008], cert denied 554 US —, 128 S Ct 2976 [2008]).
We have considered and rejected defendant's ineffective assistance of counsel claims,including those related to the absence of objections to the prosecutor's summation and those[*2]contained in defendant's pro se supplemental brief (seePeople v Benevento, 91 NY2d 708, 713-714 [1998]; Strickland v Washington, 466US 668 [1984]). Concur—Friedman, J.P., Sweeny, Freedman and Abdus-Salaam, JJ.