[*1]
People v Hernandez (Ramon)
2020 NY Slip Op 51188(U) [69 Misc 3d 131(A)]
Decided on October 9, 2020
Appellate Term, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.


Decided on October 9, 2020
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: Edmead, P.J., Cooper, Higgitt, JJ.
570459/19

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,

against

Ramon Hernandez, Defendant-Appellant.


Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Criminal Court of the City of New York, New York County (Ilana J. Marcus, J.), rendered May 29, 2019, convicting him, upon a plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, and imposing sentence.

Per Curiam.

Judgment of conviction (Ilana J. Marcus, J.), rendered May 29, 2019, affirmed.

The misdemeanor complaint charging criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (see Penal Law § 220.03) was not jurisdictionally defective. Defendant's possession of synthetic cannabinoids/synthetic phenethylamine, a Schedule I controlled substance (see Penal Law § 220.00[5]; Public Health Law § 3306[g]; see also Matter of Sahairah J. (Rosemarie R.), 135 AD3d 452 [2016]), was established by allegations that the police recovered two cigars containing "synthetic cannabinoids/synthetic phenethylamine ('K2')" from the ground where defendant dropped them, and that the officer concluded that the cigars contained synthetic cannabinoids/synthetic phenethylamine based on his professional training as a police officer in the identification of drugs, his prior experience as a police officer making drug arrests, and his observation of the packaging, which is characteristic of synthetic cannabinoids/synthetic phenethylamine (see People v Miller, 65 Misc 3d 159[A], 2019 NY Slip Op 52006[U][App Term, 1st Dept 2019], lv denied 34 NY3d 1161 [2020]; see also People v Kalin, 12 NY3d 225, 231-232 [2009]).


THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.


I concur I concur I concur


Decision Date: October 9, 2020