Opinion
2014-04-8
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Dennis P. SMALLS, Defendant–Appellant.
Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Lawrence T. Hausman of counsel), for appellant. Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Marianne Stracquadanio of counsel), for respondent.
Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Lawrence T. Hausman of counsel), for appellant.Robert T. Johnson, District Attorney, Bronx (Marianne Stracquadanio of counsel), for respondent.
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Robert Sackett, J.), rendered December 19, 2011, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, and sentencing him to a term of 30 days, unanimously affirmed.
The information was not jurisdictionally defective. Nonhearsay allegations established every element of the charged offense, notwithstanding the absence of a laboratory report ( see People v. Kalin, 12 N.Y.3d 225, 878 N.Y.S.2d 653, 906 N.E.2d 381 [2009] ). Based on the allegation that defendant possessed a glass pipe containing “a tar-like substance” that, based on the officer's “training in the recognition of controlled substances and their packaging, ... [he] believed to be crack-cocaine residue,” an inference can be drawn that defendant knew that he was in possession of cocaine ( see People v. Jennings, 22 N.Y.3d 1001, 980 N.Y.S.2d 372, 3 N.E.3d 709 [2013] ). We have considered and rejected defendant's remaining arguments. MAZZARELLI, J.P., ANDRIAS, DeGRASSE, FEINMAN, KAPNICK, JJ., concur.