People v. West

—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the County Court, Nassau County (LaPera, J.), rendered March 16, 1998, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.

Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.

The defendant raised a Batson challenge (see, Batson v Kentucky, 476 US 79) during jury selection. Since the defendant did not address the merits of the prosecution’s facially-neutral explanations his contention that the explanations, were pretextual is…