PEOPLE v. CINTRON (1998)

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

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Wilfredo CINTRON, Defendant-Appellant.

Decided: May 14, 1998

Before SULLIVAN, J.P., and ROSENBERGER, WILLIAMS and TOM, JJ.

Pamela Tishman, for Respondent. Pamela Tishman, for Defendant-Appellant.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (William Wetzel, J.), rendered September 21, 1995, 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 third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 9 1/2 to 19 years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. Despite different results obtained through different tests, the police chemists' expert testimony that they personally administered a series of definitive tests to the substances in the bags to determine their components provided reliable grounds for the trier of fact to conclude that the substance sold and possessed by defendant was cocaine (see People v. Curry, 157 A.D.2d 623, 550 N.Y.S.2d 641, lv. denied 76 N.Y.2d 786, 559 N.Y.S.2d 991, 559 N.E.2d 685). Contrary to defendant's remaining arguments, we find no evidence of contamination or defects in the chain of custody. We perceive no abuse of sentencing discretion.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.

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