Seymour W. James, Jr., The Legal Aid Society, New York (Allen Fallek of counsel), for appellant.
Darcel D. Clark, District Attorney, Bronx (Lori Farrington of counsel), for respondent.
Opinion
Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Ralph Fabrizio, J.), rendered March 8, 2012, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of manslaughter in the first degree, and sentencing him to a term of 22 years, unanimously affirmed.
The record does not establish that counsel improperly delegated to her client the decision to agree to a joint trial with the codefendant. Instead, the record supports the conclusion that in agreeing to a joint trial, along with redactions of portions of defendant's statement that arguably incriminated the codefendant, counsel weighed defendant's desire for a joint trial, but ultimately accepted her client's choice on the basis of her own professional judgment as well (see
People v. Gottsche, 118 A.D.3d 1303, 1303–1305,
987 N.Y.S.2d 736 [4th Dept.2014],
lv. denied
24 N.Y.3d 1084,
1 N.Y.S.3d 11,
25 N.E.3d 348 [2014] ). This is not a case like
People v. Colville, 20 N.Y.3d 20,
955 N.Y.S.2d 799,
979 N.E.2d 1125 (2012), or
People v. Lee, 120 A.D.3d 1137,
992 N.Y.S.2d 429 (2014), where the court made a ruling by choosing the defendant's position over the attorney's contrary position on a matter within the purview of
counsel. In any event, harmless error analysis applies (
see
Colville, 20 N.Y.3d at 32–33,
955 N.Y.S.2d 799,
979 N.E.2d 1125 ), and we find that any error in this regard was harmless.
We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence.
MAZZARELLI, J.P., ACOSTA, SAXE, KAPNICK, KAHN, JJ., concur.