Opinion
January 5, 1993
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Renee White, J.).
Defendant and an accomplice were apprehended by police officers who observed bystanders chasing defendant after the two had robbed complainant at knifepoint. The knife was recovered from the defendant by an officer who saw him attempt to throw it away.
The prosecutor's cross-examination of defendant on his interview with the Criminal Justice Agency was proper, limited as it was to defendant's refusal to disclose where he lived and worked, questions which had a bearing on his credibility and which he readily answered at the trial. Nor did the prosecutor's summation deprive defendant of a fair trial, the challenged comments for the most part being fair response to argument advanced by defense counsel (see, People v. Revell, 172 A.D.2d 356, 357, lv denied 78 N.Y.2d 972), and prejudice otherwise having been avoided by the court's rulings on the objections of each side to the other's summations (see, People v. Galloway, 54 N.Y.2d 396). In any event, any prosecutorial misconduct was harmless in view of the overwhelming evidence of guilt. Finally, the sentence, although the maximum for a predicate violent felony offender, was substantially less than could have been imposed had defendant been sentenced as a persistent felony offender, and for this and other reasons cannot be viewed as excessive.
Concur — Sullivan, J.P., Carro, Wallach, Asch and Rubin, JJ.