Opinion
January 9, 2001.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Micki Scherer, J.), rendered March 24, 1998, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the first degree (two counts) and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of 13 years, 13 years and 1 year, unanimously affirmed.
Before: Sullivan, P.J., Williams, Tom, Saxe, Friedman, JJ.
David J. Mudd, for respondent.
Dolores Kanski, for defendant-appellant.
The court's compromise Sandoval ruling balanced the appropriate factors and was a proper exercise of discretion (see, People v. Walker, 83 N.Y.2d 455, 458-459).
The court properly denied defendant's request for new counsel, made as the trial was about to commence. Defendant's conclusory attacks on counsel's performance did not constitute good cause for the desired substitution (see, People v. Sawyer, 57 N.Y.2d 12, 18-19, cert denied 459 U.S. 1178; People v. Arroyave, 49 N.Y.2d 264, 271-272).
Defendant's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel involve matters of strategy that would require a CPL 440.10 motion in order to amplify the record. On the present record, we find that defendant received meaningful representation (see, People v. Benevento, 91 N.Y.2d 708, 713-714). Without the benefit of additional facts, we cannot find fault with any of counsel's strategic decisions, including those regarding defendant's trial testimony and counsel's choice of arguments in summation (see, People v. Denny, N Y 2d [November 28, 2000], 2000 N Y LEXIS 3569; People v. Barnes, 249 A.D.2d 239, lv denied 92 N.Y.2d 847).
We perceive no basis for reduction of sentence.