Opinion
March 6, 2001.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Dorothy Cropper, J. at hearing; Ronald Zweibel, J. at plea and sentence), rendered November 30, 1998, convicting defendant of attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 4 to 8 years, unanimously affirmed.
Jaime Bachrach, for respondent.
Rosemary Herbert, for defendant-appellant.
Before: Nardelli, J.P., Williams, Tom, Lerner, Friedman, JJ.
Defendant's suppression motion was properly denied. Although the People neglected to elicit the fact that defendant's arrest was based on a communication between the observing and arresting officers, the circumstantial evidence warrants such a conclusion (People v. Gonzalez, 91 N.Y.2d 909). Such a communication is the only rational explanation of how defendant came to be arrested immediately after making a series of police-observed drug sales. The coincidence theory posited by defendant on appeal does not provide a rational explanation.
We perceive no basis for reduction of sentence.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.