People v Chandler
2016 NY Slip Op 01392 [136 AD3d 586]
February 25, 2016
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, March 23, 2016


[*1]
 The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Gregory Chandler, Appellant.

Seymour W. James, Jr., The Legal Aid Society, New York (Shane Tela of counsel), for appellant.

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

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ronald A. Zweibel, J., at suppression hearing; Thomas Farber, J., at plea and sentencing), rendered September 11, 2013, as amended September 18, 2013, convicting defendant of criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree and possession of burglar's tools, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of two to four years, unanimously affirmed.

The court properly denied defendant's suppression motion. There is no basis for disturbing the court's credibility determinations, which are supported by the record (see People v Prochilo, 41 NY2d 759, 761 [1977]). During a valid common-law inquiry, defendant voluntarily consented to the officers' search of a bag (see generally People v Gonzalez, 39 NY2d 122, 128-131 [1976]). Regardless of whether the officers directed defendant to put his bag on the hood of a police car, such a direction would not have elevated the encounter to a seizure under the totality of circumstances (see People v Cabrera, 135 AD3d 412 [1st Dept 2016]). Moreover, the hearing evidence also supports a finding that the police had reasonable suspicion at this point in the encounter. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Renwick, Manzanet-Daniels and Kapnick, JJ.