Case ID: ad2d_266/html/0407-01.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 John Rivera, Appellant.
    [698 NYS2d 169]
   —Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Pitaro, J.), rendered December 23, 1996, convicting him of burglary in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution (see, People v Contes, 60 NY2d 620), we find that it was legally sufficient to establish the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Moreover, upon the exercise of our factual review power, we find that the verdict of guilt was not against the weight of the evidence (see, CPL 470.15 [5]).

The defendant’s contention that the Trial Judge improperly communicated to the jury his opinion as to the defendant’s guilt in the course of his instruction on circumstantial evidence is unpreserved for appellate review and, in any event, without merit. We find that the charge, as a whole (see, People v Fields, 87 NY2d 821, 823), fairly and adequately informed the jury of its responsibility in a case based on circumstantial evidence (see, People v Sanchez, 61 NY2d 1022, 1024; see also, People v Davis, 244 AD2d 418; People v Harden, 174 AD2d 691, 692). Krausman, J. P., McGinity, Feuerstein and Smith, JJ., concur.