Jenay Nurse Guilford, Center for Appellate Litigation, New York (Bryan S. Furst of counsel), for appellant.

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Stacie Nadel of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Gilbert C. Hong, J.), rendered October 15, 2019, convicting defendant, following a jury trial, of arson in the second degree and reckless endangerment in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 15 years, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant explicitly waived his right to be present at trial (see People v Parker, 57 NY2d 136, 140-141 [1982]; People v Epps, 37 NY2d 343, 349-350 [1975], cert denied 423 US 999 [1975]) when he was unable to attend the proceedings on one afternoon due to illness. A valid explicit waiver of the right to be present "occurs when a defendant either personally or through his counsel makes an affirmative statement on the record to the effect that he is [waiving] [his] right" to be present (People v Girard, 211 AD3d 148, 153 [1st Dept 2022]), which defendant did on the date in question.

The evidence that defendant was the person who set fire to his ex-girlfriend's apartment door was legally sufficient, and overwhelming, and the verdict was not against the weight of the evidence (see People v Danielson, 9 NY3d 342 [2007]; see also People v Baque, 43 NY3d 26 [2024]).

We perceive no basis for reducing defendant's sentence. Concur—Manzanet-Daniels, J.P., Moulton, Mendez, Shulman, Higgitt, JJ.