People v Dunbar
2010 NY Slip Op 03363 [72 AD3d 566]
April 27, 2010
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, June 9, 2010


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Kelvin Dunbar, Appellant.

[*1] Robert S. Dean, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (John Vang of counsel), for appellant.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Susan Axelrod of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Gregory Carro, J.), rendered July 16, 2008, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 1½ to 3 years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. Defendant's actions and spontaneous statements to the police reasonably conveyed that he had been selling jewelry without a vendor's license, and thus provided probable cause for his arrest, which did not require proof beyond a reasonable doubt (see e.g. People v Lewis, 50 AD3d 595 [2008], lv denied 11 NY3d 790 [2008]). Since the officer's belief that defendant had an outstanding warrant was not the basis for the arrest, but only for the officer's decision not to issue a summons, the People were not obligated to establish the validity of the warrant. Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Catterson, Moskowitz, Renwick and Richter, JJ.