Opinion
No. 566.
March 22, 2007.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Edwin Torres, J.), rendered November 15, 2005, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2½ to 5 years, unanimously affirmed.
Stanley Neustadter, Cardozo Appeals Clinic, New York (Mark Abramson of counsel), for appellant.
Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Elizabeth A. Squires of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Tom, J.P., Andrias, Sullivan, Williams and Gonzalez, JJ.
While the court should have avoided singling out the intoxication defense as a matter upon which the jury should "proceed with caution," the charge, viewed as a whole, conveyed the proper standards and did not deprive defendant of a fair trial ( see People v Fields, 87 NY2d 821). The court carefully instructed the jury on the People's burden of proof, and it never suggested that defendant had any such burden ( compare People v Velazquez, 77 AD2d 845, lv denied 51 NY2d 884), or that the court had any opinion on the intoxication issue. Defendant's argument concerning the court's supplemental charge is unpreserved and without merit.