PEOPLE v. THOMAS (1997)

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (George Covington, J.), rendered March 15, 1996, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 2 1/3 to 7 years, and order, same court and Justice entered on or about December 10, 1996, which denied defendant's motion to vacate judgment pursuant to CPL article 440, unanimously affirmed.

 We conclude that defendant received effective assistance of counsel (People v. Baldi, 54 N.Y.2d 137, 444 N.Y.S.2d 893, 429 N.E.2d 400).   We note that counsel's tactics met with considerable success in that defendant was acquitted of murder in the second degree and assault in the first degree (see, People v. Green, 174 A.D.2d 511, 571 N.Y.S.2d 290, lv. denied 78 N.Y.2d 1011, 575 N.Y.S.2d 819, 581 N.E.2d 1065).   Trial counsel's unsuccessful application to exclude certain evidence was strenuously and coherently argued, and defendant's attack on counsel's decision not to call certain potential witnesses or to exercise a peremptory challenge against one particular prospective juror amounts to, at most, a disagreement over trial tactics, which does not indicate ineffectiveness (see, People v. Rivera, 71 N.Y.2d 705, 708, 530 N.Y.S.2d 52, 525 N.E.2d 698).   Accordingly, defendant's motion to vacate judgment on these grounds was properly denied without a hearing.

 The trial court properly admitted evidence of certain uncharged crimes because they were highly relevant to establish defendant's motive, and to explain the victim's protracted delay in disclosing to the police the perpetrator of the crime (see, People v. Steinberg, 170 A.D.2d 50, 72-74, 573 N.Y.S.2d 965, affd. 79 N.Y.2d 673, 584 N.Y.S.2d 770, 595 N.E.2d 845).   Since defendant did not request a limiting instruction, his argument in that regard is unpreserved for appellate review (see, People v. Rivera, 234 A.D.2d 19, 650 N.Y.S.2d 647, lv. denied 89 N.Y.2d 1040, 659 N.Y.S.2d 871, 681 N.E.2d 1318), and we decline to reach it in the interest of justice.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.