People v. Shabazz

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed and a new trial ordered.

Defendants and a female codefendant were passengers in an automobile that was stopped by the police. All the occupants were charged with second-degree weapon possession after the officers observed a loaded handgun protruding from a handbag near the rear seat of the vehicle where the woman had been sitting.

During the course of pretrial proceedings, the female codefendant had a conversation with Perrington’s lawyer in which she stated that the gun belonged to her. At her separate trial,…