Opinion
2600.
Decided December 30, 2003.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Budd Goodman, J.), rendered February 5, 2002, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 10 to 20 years and 1 year, respectively, unanimously modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, to the extent of reducing defendant's sentence on the criminal sale conviction to a term of 6 to 12 years, and otherwise affirmed.
Madeleine Guilmain, for Respondent.
Catharine L. DuBois, for Defendant-Appellant.
Before: Tom, J.P., Mazzarelli, Ellerin, Lerner, Marlow, JJ.
The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence. Defendant's course of conduct warrants the conclusion that he was a participant in the drug transaction, whose role included screening potential customers ( see People v. Bello, 92 N.Y.2d 523).
Defendant failed to preserve his claims concerning police testimony as to the roles of participants in street-level narcotics sales ( see People v. Harris, 98 N.Y.2d 452, 492; People v. Tevaha, 84 N.Y.2d 879), and we decline to review them in the interest of justice. Were we to review these claims, we would reject them ( see People v. Brown, 97 N.Y.2d 500, 506-507).
We find the sentence to be excessive to the extent indicated.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.