PEOPLE v. GONZALEZ (2000)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Joan Sudolnik, J.), rendered February 11, 1998, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 4 1/212 to 9 years, unanimously affirmed.

The trial court properly admitted testimony that the defendant and his two co-defendants forced the undercover officer to sample the heroin he had purchased in order to prove that he was not a police officer.   The testimony was admissible because it completed the narrative of the sale and tended to prove that defendant was a participant in the sale (see, People v. Alvino, 71 N.Y.2d 233, 525 N.Y.S.2d 7, 519 N.E.2d 808).

The court's Sandoval ruling was an appropriate exercise of discretion that balanced the proper factors (see, People v. Walker, 83 N.Y.2d 455, 458-459, 611 N.Y.S.2d 118, 633 N.E.2d 472;  People v. Pavao, 59 N.Y.2d 282, 292, 464 N.Y.S.2d 458, 451 N.E.2d 216).

MEMORANDUM DECISION.