| People v Natal |
| 2012 NY Slip Op 03087 [94 AD3d 619] |
| April 24, 2012 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Morris Natal, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Allen H. Saperstein of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (John S. Moore, J.), rendered January 8, 2003,convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree and attempted murder inthe second degree, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of 25 years to life and 25 years,respectively, unanimously affirmed.
The court properly exercised its discretion when it precluded defendant from testifying thatthe murder victim had requested that defendant accompany him to court shortly before thehomicide. This testimony's potential for prejudice substantially outweighed any probative value(see People v Mateo, 2 NY3d 383, 424-425 [2004], cert denied 542 US 946[2004]). At most, this evidence tended to show that the murder victim did not consider defendantan enemy. However, this did little to contradict the People's theory that the murder and attemptedmurder were primarily motivated by gang politics rather than animosity toward the victims.Moreover, the precluded testimony was irrelevant to anything other than the victim's state ofmind and cumulative to other evidence that the court received. The unexplained reference to acourt case carried the potential for speculation and prejudice.
Defendant did not preserve his claim that the court erred in precluding him from testifyingabout another statement by the murder victim (see People v George, 67 NY2d 817, 819[1986]), or any constitutional arguments regarding either of the precluded statements (see People v Lane, 7 NY3d 888,889 [2006]), and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding,we also reject them on the merits (see Crane v Kentucky, 476 US 683, 689-[*2]690 [1986]). We also reject defendant's related claim of ineffectiveassistance of counsel (see People v Benevento, 91 NY2d 708, 713-714 [1998];Strickland v Washington, 466 US 668 [1984]).
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Sweeny,Moskowitz, Abdus-Salaam and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.