| People v Hamilton |
| 2016 NY Slip Op 00126 [135 AD3d 500] |
| January 12, 2016 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
[*1]
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Kareem Hamilton, Appellant. |
Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Mark W. Zeno ofcounsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Nicole Coviello of counsel), andPatterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, New York (Ethan Krasnoo of counsel), forrespondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Arlene D. Goldberg, J.), renderedNovember 19, 2013, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of acontrolled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony drugoffender previously convicted of a violent felony, to a term of six years, unanimouslyaffirmed.
The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weightof the evidence (see People vDanielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing thejury's credibility determinations. Defendant's overall course of conduct supports aninference that he was a participant in the drug transaction, and did not merely direct theundercover buyer to the drug dealer he was seeking. The evidence demonstrated thatdefendant acted, at least, as a lookout (see e.g. People v Rodriguez, 52 AD3d 249 [1st Dept 2008],lv denied 11 NY3d 741 [2008]), as well as performing a receptionist-likefunction.
The court properly denied defendant's request for an agency instruction because therewas no reasonable view of the evidence that defendant took part in the transaction, butacted only on behalf of the buyer. Absent evidence "indicative of a relationship with thebuyer," an agency charge is not warranted by alleged "ambiguities about the defendant'sconnection to the seller" (People v Herring, 83 NY2d 780, 783 [1994]; see also People v Williams, 88AD3d 463, 464 [1st Dept 2011], affd 21 NY3d 932 [2013]; People v Lewis, 51 AD3d475 [1st Dept 2008], lv denied 11 NY3d 738 [2008]).Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Friedman, Gische and Kapnick, JJ.