| People v Almonte |
| 2014 NY Slip Op 04433 [118 AD3d 548] |
| June 17, 2014 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Jonathan Almonte, Appellant. |
Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Bryan D. Kreykes of counsel), forappellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Jared Wolkowitz of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ruth Pickholz, J.), renderedDecember 9, 2010, as amended January 12, 2011, convicting defendant, after a jury trial,of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as asecond felony drug offender, to a term of four years, unanimously affirmed.
The challenged evidence presented regarding other crimes and bad acts, and therelated arguments in the prosecutor's summation, were generally relevant for purposesother than criminal propensity (see generally People v Cass, 18 NY3d 553, 559-560[2012]). Some portions of the proof at issue were relevant to consciousness of guilt andothers tended to complete a coherent narrative. To the extent that some elements of thechallenged evidence did not have a legitimate nonpropensity purpose or had the potentialfor undue prejudice, and to the extent any portions of the prosecutor's summation wereinappropriate, the court's curative actions minimized any prejudice, and any error washarmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt (see People v Crimmins,36 NY2d 230 [1975]). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Friedman, Saxe and Feinman,JJ.