Opinion
986
May 7, 2002.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Phylis Skloot Bamberger, J.), rendered April 11, 1997, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near school grounds and criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 8 to 16 years, unanimously affirmed.
Christopher J. Blira-Koessler, for respondent.
Paul Feinman, for defendant-appellant.
Before: Williams, P.J., Nardelli, Saxe, Rosenberger, Marlow, JJ.
The court's Sandoval ruling, permitting the prosecutor to impeach defendant's credibility with his five felony convictions, without identifying the crimes or eliciting any other information about these convictions except their dates, balanced the appropriate factors and was a proper exercise of discretion (see, People v. Walker, 83 N.Y.2d 455, 458-459).
Defendant's claim that the court's alleged interjections into the trial demonstrated that the trial was conducted in a biased manner is unpreserved (People v. Charleston, 56 N.Y.2d 886), and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. Were we to review this claim, we would find that the court did not unduly interject itself, or conduct the trial in a biased manner, and that defendant has not established that these interventions, each of which occurred outside the jury's presence, caused him any prejudice (see, People v. Davis, 289 A.D.2d 134).
We perceive no basis for a reduction of sentence.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.