| People v Salazar |
| 2015 NY Slip Op 07213 [132 AD3d 418] |
| October 6, 2015 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Wilson Salazar, Appellant. |
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Carl S. Kaplan ofcounsel), for appellant.
Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Marianne Stracquadanio of counsel),for respondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Joseph C. Teresi, J.), rendered April 22,2013, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of marijuana in thefirst degree, and sentencing him to a term of 3
Defendant did not preserve his claim that the prosecution discriminated against"Hispanic males" in its exercise of peremptory challenges. Defense counsel, who madeno reference to the ethnicity of his client or of any jurors or prospective jurors, failed toarticulate such a claim (see People v Stephens, 84 NY2d 990 [1994]), and wedecline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject it on themerits. Regardless of whether the protections of Batson v Kentucky (476 US 79[1986]) extend to groups defined by both ethnicity and gender, defendant did notproduce "evidence sufficient to permit the trial judge to draw an inference thatdiscrimination ha[d] occurred" (Johnson v California, 545 US 162, 170 [2005]),and there was nothing to prevent defendant from making a record to support a claimedprima facie case of discrimination.
The verdict was supported by legally sufficient evidence and was not against theweight of the evidence (seePeople v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There was ample evidence,including evidence of defendant's consciousness of guilt, to support the conclusion thathe knowingly exercised dominion and control over a marijuana-growing operation in thebasement of a building where he was employed as the superintendent.Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Mazzarelli, Sweeny, Richter and Manzanet-Daniels,JJ.