PEOPLE v. MACON (1998)

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

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Lamont MACON, Defendant-Appellant.

Decided: December 15, 1998

LERNER, P.J., SULLIVAN, MILONAS, ROSENBERGER and ELLERIN, JJ.

Elizabeth F. Bernhardt, for Respondent. Abigail Everett, for Defendant-Appellant.

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Robert Cohen, J.), rendered January 8, 1997, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of attempted murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 8 1/313 to 25 years, unanimously affirmed.

The prosecutor's proper cross-examination of defendant concerning his employment, which inquiry resulted in defendant's unexpected admission of prior drug involvement, was not a violation of the court's Sandoval ruling.

The court properly exercised its discretion in limiting cross-examination of the complainant by precluding defendant from questioning him about his alleged participation in a murder 10 or 12 years earlier for which someone else had been convicted. Defendant's offer of proof was inadequate and lacked a good faith basis in that it was speculative and based upon totally unreliable rumor (see, People v. Hargrove, 213 A.D.2d 492, 624 N.Y.S.2d 39, lv. denied 87 N.Y.2d 846, 638 N.Y.S.2d 605, 661 N.E.2d 1386).

We have considered and rejected defendant's other claims.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.

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