Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law, and a new trial is ordered.
The court committed reversible error when, after the defense counsel made his peremptory challenges, it permitted the prosecutor to belatedly exercise a peremptory challenge to a still unsworn, prospective juror ( see, CPL 270.15; People v. McQuade, 110 N.Y. 284; People v. Lebron, 236 A.D.2d 423; People v. De Conto, 172 A.D.2d 684, affd 80 N.Y.2d 943; see also, People v. Alston, 88 N.Y.2d 519).
Further, we note that the court erred in refusing to charge that a reasonable doubt could arise from a lack of evidence as well as from the evidence presented ( see, People v. Roldos, 161 A.D.2d 610).
Bracken, J. P., Pizzuto, Friedmann and Luciano, JJ., concur.