Opinion
June 22, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Queens County (Spires, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
The defendant contends that he was prejudiced because the court improperly permitted the People to introduce into evidence three certificates of his prior drug convictions to establish that the defendant had knowledge of the weight of the drugs he was found to possess and refused his offer to stipulate to the element of the charged offenses requiring knowledge of the weight of the drugs.
Evidence of prior convictions may be admitted to establish some element of the crime charged where its probative value outweighs the potential for prejudice to the defendant ( People v. Alvino, 71 N.Y.2d 233, 241-242). Here, the defendant's prior drug convictions, which were probative of his experience with drugs and their packaging, were properly admitted, with appropriate limiting instructions to the jury, to support the inference that he possessed knowledge of the weight of the: drugs ( People v. Hunter, 220 A.D.2d 452). Furthermore, the decision as to whether to decline or accept an offer of stipulation by the defendant lies wholly within the prosecutor's discretion and a prosecutor may not be forced to accept an offer to stipulate to an element of a charged crime ( People v. Hills, 140 A.D.2d 71).
Pizzuto, J. P., Santucci, Altman and Luciano, JJ., concur.