PEOPLE v. WALKER (2006)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Lewis Bart Stone, J.), rendered May 28, 2004, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and sentencing him, as a persistent violent felony offender, to an aggregate term of 25 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant failed to preserve his claim that the evidence was legally insufficient to establish his intent to cause serious physical injury, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice.   Were we to review this claim, we would find that the evidence was legally sufficient.   We also conclude that the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence.   Defendant slashed his victim's face with a razor, and his intent to cause serious physical injury could be readily inferred from his actions (see People v. Getch, 50 N.Y.2d 456, 465, 429 N.Y.S.2d 579, 407 N.E.2d 425 [1980] ).   There was evidence before the jury, moreover, from which it reasonably may have concluded that defendant's attack was motivated by a desire to inflict an injury severe enough to prevent the victim from competing or interfering with defendant's drug-selling activities.

Defendant's constitutional challenge to the procedure under which he was sentenced as a persistent violent felony offender is unpreserved for appellate review and, in any event, is without merit (see People v. Rosen, 96 N.Y.2d 329, 728 N.Y.S.2d 407, 752 N.E.2d 844 [2001], cert. denied 534 U.S. 899, 122 S.Ct. 224, 151 L.Ed.2d 160 [2001] ).   Defendant's mandatory sentence as a persistent violent felony offender was based entirely on his prior convictions (see Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 [1998] ).