PEOPLE v. TOPSY (1999)

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

The PEOPLE, etc., respondent, v. Ricardo TOPSY, appellant.

Decided: October 04, 1999

SONDRA MILLER, J.P., FRED T. SANTUCCI, THOMAS R. SULLIVAN and ANITA R. FLORIO, JJ.

Stuart D. Rubin, Brooklyn, N.Y., for appellant. Charles J. Hynes, District Attorney, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Roseann B. MacKechnie, Victor Barall, and Karen Marcus of counsel), for respondent.

Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Feldman, J.), rendered July 9, 1997, convicting him of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant possessed an unlicensed, loaded firearm. The jury was entitled to presume that the defendant intended to use it unlawfully (see, Penal Law § 265.15[4]; People v. Higdon, 162 A.D.2d 957, 958, 557 N.Y.S.2d 778; People v. Carrion, 136 A.D.2d 649, 650, 523 N.Y.S.2d 606).

There is no merit to the defendant's claims of prosecutorial misconduct during the cross-examination of the defendant and during closing argument (see, People v. Whyte, 228 A.D.2d 395, 645 N.Y.S.2d 292, lv. denied 89 N.Y.2d 868, 653 N.Y.S.2d 291, 675 N.E.2d 1244, cert. denied 521 U.S. 1125, 117 S.Ct. 2524, 138 L.Ed.2d 1024).

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

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