PEOPLE v. THORNE (2000)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Laura Drager, J., at hearing;  Edwin Torres, J., at jury trial and sentence), rendered July 29, 1998, convicting defendant of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third and fifth degrees, and two counts of criminally using drug paraphernalia in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 6 to 12 years, 3 1/212 to 7 years, 1 year and 1 year, unanimously affirmed.   Judgment, same court (Laura Drager, J.), rendered December 16, 1998, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a concurrent term of 4 1/212 to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.

The hearing court properly held that the People sustained their burden of proving an independent source for the second warrant based upon evidence that it was obtained as a result of independent and reliable information provided by a confidential informant, and that the police officer's prior knowledge of defendant as a result of the first warrant served only to enhance her assessment of the informant's reliability but did not have a causal connection with the second warrant (see, Murray v. United States, 487 U.S. 533, 542, 108 S.Ct. 2529, 101 L.Ed.2d 472).   The record fails to support defendant's argument that the hearing court curtailed defense counsel's cross-examination.   We have considered and rejected defendant's remaining arguments.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.