PEOPLE v. CRUZ (2007)

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Pedro CRUZ, Defendant-Appellant.

Decided: February 08, 2007

MAZZARELLI, J.P., ANDRIAS, MARLOW, BUCKLEY, McGUIRE, JJ.

Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Lyssa M. Sampson of counsel), for appellant. Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Susan Axelrod of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol Berkman, J.), rendered April 20, 2005, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to a term of 18 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence. There is no basis for disturbing the jury's determinations concerning identification and credibility (see People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495, 515 N.Y.S.2d 761, 508 N.E.2d 672 [1987] ). In addition to identification testimony, there was corroborating fingerprint evidence.

Defendant's constitutional challenge to the procedure under which he was sentenced as a persistent violent felony offender is without merit (see Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 [1998] ).

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.

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