| People v Black |
| 2011 NY Slip Op 09664 [90 AD3d 1066] |
| December 27, 2011 |
| Appellate Division, Second Department |
| The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v CraigBlack, Appellant. |
—[*1] Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Leonard Joblove, Jodi L. Mandel, andMeg D. Holzer of counsel), for respondent.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Heffernan,Jr., J.), rendered July 30, 2007, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in thethird degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, upon a juryverdict, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
"A criminal defendant has a fundamental constitutional right to present witnesses in his orher own defense" (People v Pitt, 84AD3d 1275, 1276 [2011]; see Chambers v Mississippi, 410 US 284, 302 [1973])."Moreover, '[a] [trial] court's discretion in evidentiary rulings is circumscribed by the rules ofevidence and the defendant's constitutional right to present a defense' " (People v Pitt, 84AD3d at 1276, quoting People v Carroll, 95 NY2d 375, 385 [2000]; see People v Diaz, 85 AD3d 1047,1050 [2011]; People v Ocampo, 28AD3d 684, 685 [2006]). However, a defendant's right to present a defense is not absolute (see People v Hayes, 17 NY3d 46,53 [2011], cert denied 565 US —, 132 S Ct 844 [2011]; People v Williams, 81 NY2d 303, 313 [1993]), and thetrial court has wide latitude to exclude evidence that is repetitive, only marginally relevant, orposes an undue risk of confusion of the issues (see People v Bowen, 67 AD3d 1022, 1023 [2009]; People vCelifie, 287 AD2d 465, 466 [2001]; People v Cancel, 176 AD2d 748, 749 [1991]).
The Supreme Court, under the circumstances here, providently exercised its discretion inexcluding testimony of a witness called by the defendant that there was a video camera outsidethe building where the defendant allegedly completed a drug sale to an undercover police officer(see People v Hayes, 17 NY3d46 [2011]). Dillon, J.P., Florio, Chambers and Miller, JJ., concur.