Opinion
2000-00657
Argued March 25, 2002.
April 22, 2002.
Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Blumenfeld, J.), rendered December 21, 1999, convicting him of criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree and unauthorized use of a vehicle in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Lynn W. L. Fahey, New York, N.Y. (Jay L. Weiner of counsel), for appellant.
Richard A. Brown, District Attorney, Kew Gardens, N.Y. (John M. Castellano, Lisa Drury, and Sabine Browne of counsel), for respondent.
Before: SONDRA MILLER, J.P., GABRIEL M. KRAUSMAN, GLORIA GOLDSTEIN, BARRY A. COZIER, JJ.
ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed.
Contrary to the defendant's contention, the trial court properly denied his Batson challenge (see Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79). The prosecutor advanced sufficient race-neutral reasons for exercising a peremptory challenge against the subject juror, and the burden then shifted to the defendant to prove that the peremptory challenge was used in a racially-discriminatory fashion (see People v. Payne, 88 N.Y.2d 172). The defendant failed to satisfy his burden of proving that the explanations given by the prosecutor were pretextual (see People v. Payne, supra; People v. Rose, 258 A.D.2d 483; People v. Craig, 194 A.D.2d 687; see generally Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 364-365).
The defendant's remaining contentions lack merit.
S. MILLER, J.P., KRAUSMAN, GOLDSTEIN and COZIER, JJ., concur.