People v McNeil
2010 NY Slip Op 07199 [77 AD3d 685]
October 5, 2010
Appellate Division, Second Department
As corrected through Wednesday, December 15, 2010


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
EricMcNeil, Appellant.

[*1]Lynn W. L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Steven R. Bernhard of counsel), for appellant.

Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano, Johnnette Traill,and Danielle Hartman of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Roman, J.),rendered June 6, 2008, convicting him of robbery in the first degree, robbery in the second degree (twocounts), assault in the first degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, upon ajury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

Any prejudice that might have arisen from hearsay testimony elicited by the prosecutor wasalleviated when the trial court sustained the defense objections to the challenged testimony, struck thetestimony, and issued prompt curative instructions to the jury (see People v Santiago, 52NY2d 865 [1981]; People v Jackson,59 AD3d 637 [2009]; People vGarcia, 4 AD3d 374 [2004]; People v Reid, 140 AD2d 639, 640-641 [1988]).Moreover, since the defendant did not challenge the adequacy of the curative instructions before thetrial court, such argument is unpreserved for appellate review (see People v Santiago, 52NY2d at 866; People v Reid, 140 AD2d at 640-641; People v Watson, 118 AD2d608, 609 [1986]). In any event, any errors that resulted from this testimony were harmless, as therewas overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt, and no significant probability that the errorcontributed to his convictions (see People v Crimmins, 36 NY2d 230, 241-242 [1975]; cf.People v Heman, 198 AD2d 434, 435 [1993]).

The defendant's remaining contentions are without merit. Santucci, J.P., Balkin, Belen andChambers, JJ., concur.


NYPTI Decisions © 2026 is a project of New York Prosecutors Training Institute (NYPTI) made possible by leveraging the work we've done providing online research and tools to prosecutors.

NYPTI would like to thank New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, New York State Senate's Open Legislation Project, New York State Unified Court System, New York State Law Reporting Bureau and Free Law Project for their invaluable assistance making this project possible.

Install the free RECAP extensions to help contribute to this archive. See https://free.law/recap/ for more information.