People v Azhar
2013 NY Slip Op 00558 [102 AD3d 633]
January 31, 2013
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, February 27, 2013


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Musa Azhar, Appellant.

[*1] Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Joseph M. Nursey of counsel), and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, New York (Linda S. Riefberg of counsel), for appellant.

Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Sheila L. Bautista of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Marcy L. Kahn, J.), rendered December 8, 2009, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of two counts each of attempted robbery in the second degree and assault in the third degree, and sentencing him to an aggregate term of 2½ years, unanimously affirmed.

The verdict was based on legally sufficient evidence and was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342, 348-349 [2007]). There is no basis for disturbing the jury's credibility determinations. The evidence supports the inference that defendant shared his companions' intent to forcibly steal property (see e.g. Matter of Juan J., 81 NY2d 739 [1992]; People v Allah, 71 NY2d 830 [1988]). The only reasonable explanation for defendant's conduct was that it was part of an attempted robbery.

We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence. Concur—Tom, J.P., Andrias, Acosta, Manzanet-Daniels and Román, JJ.