People v Blunt
2013 NY Slip Op 07119 [110 AD3d 635]
October 31, 2013
Appellate Division, First Department
As corrected through Wednesday, November 27, 2013


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

[*1]Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Bruce D. Austernof counsel), for appellant.

Samuel Blunt, appellant pro se.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Caleb Kruckenberg of counsel),for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward J. McLaughlin, J.), renderedApril 26, 2011, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlledsubstance in the first degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the firstand third degrees, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of 13 years, unanimouslyaffirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's request for an instruction on the affirmativedefense of entrapment. There was no reasonable view of the evidence, viewed mostfavorably to defendant, that the police actively induced or encouraged him commit thecrime, or that any police conduct, including their use of a confidential informant whowas defendant's childhood friend, created a substantial risk that defendant would committhe crime although not otherwise disposed to do so (see Penal Law §40.05; People v Brown, 82 NY2d 869, 871-872 [1993]; People v Butts,72 NY2d 746, 750 [1988]). The record demonstrates that the police merely affordeddefendant the opportunity to commit the crime, that he was disposed to commit it, and[*2]that he engaged in salesman-like behavior.Defendant's own testimony tended to negate the elements of the entrapment defense.

We have considered and rejected defendant's pro se claims.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P.,Renwick, DeGrasse, Feinman and Gische, JJ.


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