PEOPLE v. PARKER (2001)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Richard Carruthers, J.), rendered January 26, 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 jury's verdict was based on sufficient evidence.  “The drug sale was established beyond a reasonable doubt by testimony that defendant sold a small unknown object that the buyer took hold of but discarded seconds later upon arrival of the arresting officer[ ], and which turned out to be a small plastic bag containing cocaine. In this short time interval, the buyer could not have disposed of the object [he] purchased from defendant and bought drugs from someone else.”  (People v. Starks, 216 A.D.2d 120, 629 N.Y.S.2d 749, affd. 88 N.Y.2d 18, 643 N.Y.S.2d 10, 665 N.E.2d 1050).   Contrary to defendant's argument, the facts in the instant case are indistinguishable from those in Starks.