Opinion
1659
September 30, 2003.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Herbert Altman, J.), rendered March 14, 2002, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of burglary in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 3 to 6 years, unanimously affirmed.
Sylvia Wertheimer, for respondent.
Jody Ratner, for defendant-appellant.
Before: Nardelli, J.P., Mazzarelli, Andrias, Ellerin, Marlow, JJ.
The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. There is no basis for disturbing the court's credibility determinations, which are supported by the record (see People v. Prochilo, 41 N.Y.2d 759, 761).
The victim's observations at the time her laptop computer was stolen, coupled with defendant's behavior and statements immediately prior to his arrest, provided enough circumstantial evidence linking defendant to the theft to establish probable cause, which does not require proof beyond a reasonable doubt (see Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175;People v. Bigelow, 66 N.Y.2d 417, 423).
The totality of the circumstances supports the hearing court's finding that defendant's statements were voluntarily made (see Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 285-288; People v. Anderson, 42 N.Y.2d 35, 38-39). The court properly determined that the police did not make any promises to defendant to induce his confession, and that their use of deceptive statements did not render the statement inadmissible (see People v. Tarsia, 50 N.Y.2d 1, 11; People v. Stokes, 233 A.D.2d 194, lv denied 89 N.Y.2d 1101).
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.