Opinion
1738
September 25, 2003.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Dorothy Cropper, J.), rendered May 19, 1998, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 8 years, unanimously modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, to reduce the sentence to 7 years, and otherwise affirmed.
Alice Wiseman, for respondent.
Sarah Geraghty, for defendant-appellant.
Before: Buckley, P.J., Tom, Ellerin, Marlow, Gonzalez, JJ.
The verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (People v. Bleakley, 69 N.Y.2d 490, 495).
The trial court's decision to preclude a defense witness was not an improvident exercise of discretion (see People v. Aska, 91 N.Y.2d 979).
We reject defendant's conflict of interest claim, and agree with the reasoning of the court in Skinner v. Duncan (2003 WL 21386032, *40-49 [SDNY, June 17, 2003]), which rejected a similar claim involving the same defense attorney.
We find the sentence excessive to the extent indicated.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.