Case ID: ad2d_172/html/0412-01.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 Rene Lastra, Appellant.
   Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Angela Mazzarrelli, J.) rendered August 17, 1989, convicting defendant after a jury trial of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and sentencing defendant as a second felony offender to an indeterminate term of imprisonment of from 5 to 10 years, unanimously affirmed.

Any possibility that the prosecutor’s summation shifted the burden of proof was negated by the trial court’s subsequent instructions to the jury. Moreover, the summation, when evaluated as a whole, cannot be said to have deprived defendant of his right to a fair trial (see, People v Higgins, 88 AD2d 921). Concur—Sullivan, J. P., Carro, Rosenberger, Kupferman and Rubin, JJ.