Case ID: ad2d_299/html/0293-02.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 Kenneth Graham, Also Known as Phillip Williams, Appellant.
    [749 NYS2d 722]
   Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura Visitacion-Lewis, J.), rendered May 3, 2000, convicting defendant, after a nonjury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 4V2 to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court’s verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. The People disproved defendant’s agency defense beyond a reasonable doubt (see People v Herring, 83 NY2d 780). The evidence, viewed as a whole, clearly warranted the conclusion that defendant was a participant in the drug-selling operation and had a working relationship with the other participant. Moreover, “there was no evidence that defendant had any other reason to risk arrest by assisting a total stranger in purchasing drugs” (People v Elvy, 277 AD2d 80, lv denied 96 NY2d 783). There is no basis for disturbing the court’s determinations concerning the undercover officer’s credibility. Concur — Mazzarelli, J.P., Rosenberger, Rubin and Gonzalez, JJ.