People v. Samuels

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Frank Torres, J.), rendered December 3, 1996, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of murder in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of 25 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant was not denied his right to conflict-free counsel when the court permitted an attorney who had represented him in pretrial stages of the case to represent the prosecution’s principal eyewitness solely in her capacity as a defendant in two unrelated cases, while appointing another attorney to represent her when she testified. Defendant’s trial attorney had…