Case ID: ad2d_236/html/0228-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People of the State of New York, Respondent, v Ricky Sellars, Appellant.
    [654 NYS2d 285]
   —Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Jerome Hornblass, J.), rendered June 1, 1994, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to a term of 7 years to life, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

As the People concede, reversal is required because the court improperly ruled that the prosecutor could question defendant about unrelated pending criminal charges (see, People v Betts, 70 NY2d 289, 292-295). Contrary to the court’s ruling, this evidence was not admissible on the issue of intent. Accordingly, we remand the matter for a new trial. Concur—Wallach, J. P., Nardelli, Williams and Tom, JJ.