Opinion
7816.
February 9, 2006.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Arlene R. Silverman, J.), rendered April 1, 2004, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third and fifth degrees, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 4½ to 9 years and 2½ to 5 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.
Laura R. Johnson, The Legal Aid Society, New York (David Crow of counsel), and Greenberg Traurig, LLP, New York (Sarah E. Bell of counsel), for appellant.
Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Ameer Benno of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Andrias, J.P., Friedman, Marlow, Catterson and Malone, JJ., concurs.
The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence ( see People v. Bleakley, 69 NY2d 490). Seconds after the police observed defendant throw an object, an officer went to the precise spot where such object would have landed and found a plastic bag containing 19 pink-topped vials of crack cocaine. The police did not find any other objects at that location, and they did not see anyone else discarding anything. This evidence established beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant possessed the drugs. The number of vials possessed ( see People v. Alvino, 71 NY2d 233, 245; People v. Beltran, 11 AD3d 330, lv denied 4 NY3d 741), as well as the expert testimony ( see People v. Hicks, 2 NY3d 750, 751), to which there was no objection, established that defendant possessed the drugs with intent to sell.