| People v Johnson |
| 2010 NY Slip Op 06764 [76 AD3d 937] |
| September 30, 2010 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v KeithJohnson, Appellant. |
—[*1] Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Andrew Seewald of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Daniel P. FitzGerald, J.), rendered December22, 2004, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in thethird degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 6 to 12 years,unanimously affirmed.
Given the circumstances, the court made an adequate inquiry into defendant's request for newcounsel, made after commencement of trial and while defendant was refusing to appear in thecourtroom. Counsel relayed this request to the court, and explained the reasons for his client'srequest. Those grounds fell far short of good cause for a midtrial change of attorneys."Defendant's unjustified hostility toward his counsel and his disagreements with counsel's tacticsdid not require substitution" (People vWalton, 14 AD3d 419, 420 [2005], lv denied 5 NY3d 796 [2005]). Whendefendant returned to the courtroom later in the trial, his main tactical disagreement with counselhad been resolved and defendant had no further complaints.
The portion of the prosecutor's summation that defendant challenges as distorting theevidence was permissible argument, since it sought to draw reasonable inferences from therecord (see People v Overlee, 236 AD2d 133 [1997], lv denied 91 NY2d 976[1998]); in any event, any error in this regard was harmless. Defendant's other challenge to thesummation is unpreserved and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternativeholding, we find no basis for reversal.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Sweeny,Catterson, DeGrasse and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.