Opinion
892
June 17, 2003.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Jeffrey Atlas, J.), rendered March 8, 2000, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of two counts of murder in the first degree, four counts of murder in the second degree and two counts of kidnapping in the first degree, and sentencing him to life without parole on the first-degree murder convictions, and 25-year terms on all other convictions, unanimously affirmed.
Sheryl Feldman, for respondent.
Michelle Fox, for defendant-appellant.
Before: Nardelli, J.P., Mazzarelli, Rosenberger, Ellerin, Gonzalez, JJ.
The court's Sandoval ruling was a proper exercise of discretion in which the court carefully balanced the probative value of the convictions against the potential for undue prejudice (see People v. Hayes, 97 N.Y.2d 203; People v. Walker, 83 N.Y.2d 455, 458-459; People v. Pavao, 59 N.Y.2d 282, 292). Defendant's prior convictions demonstrated his willingness to put his interests above those of society, and the court precluded certain particularly prejudicial details.
The court's responses to the jury's questions were meaningful and appropriately conveyed to the jury the proper standards concerning voluntariness of statements, as applicable to the facts of the case (see People v. Malloy, 55 N.Y.2d 296, cert denied 459 U.S. 847; see also CPL 60.45[b][i]). The court made it clear that an involuntary statement is to be disregarded even if truthful, and gave the jury suitable guidance for dealing with a fact pattern in which part of a statement could be found to be voluntary and another part found to be involuntary.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.