Opinion
March 10, 1986
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Rubin, J.).
Judgment affirmed.
The evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to permit a rational trier of fact to find that the defendant was guilty of the crimes charged (People v. Contes, 60 N.Y.2d 620). The defendant was seen near the scene of the stabbing by several witnesses just prior to the event, and one witness observed the defendant's participation in the crime itself. While the witnesses' accounts of the precise shade of the defendant's hair and the color of his car differed slightly, these variances were not sufficiently great to discount their testimony. Credibility is a matter reserved primarily for the jury and we have traditionally been resistent to second guess its determination on this issue (see, People v. Gruttola, 43 N.Y.2d 116; People v. Di Girolamo, 108 A.D.2d 755, lv denied 64 N.Y.2d 1133). Minor discrepancies between the testimony of witnesses is not sufficient to show that the testimony of a witness was incredible as a matter of law (see, People v. Di Girolamo, supra).
Lastly, the court's interested witness charge properly advised the jury, in accordance with 1 CJI (NY) 7.03 (at p 269), that they might consider the interest of any witness. The defendant's requested charge with respect to the interest of the witnesses was improper in that it sought an instruction that several of the People's witnesses were interested as a matter of law; under the circumstances of this case, the question of a witness's interest was a question of fact for the jury (People v Jackson, 80 A.D.2d 904; People v. Srbu, 51 A.D.2d 978). Moreover, although the court should have properly balanced its charge by including the possible interest of the victim's brother, as it had with respect to the claimed interest of the defendant's sons and daughter-in-law (see, People v. Brabham, 77 A.D.2d 626), this error was harmless (see, People v. Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230). Even discounting the testimony of the victim's brother, sufficient evidence, if credited by the jury, was adduced as to the defendant's guilt. Mangano, J.P., Thompson, Brown and Eiber, JJ., concur.