People v. Ortiz

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed.

The dispositive issue is whether the trial court’s denial of the requested missing witness instruction is reversible error under the facts and circumstances of this case applying our standard rubrics. At trial, defendant Ortiz joined in a request for an adverse inference instruction as to a nontestifying police officer, who was in a car near the scene of the buy-and-bust criminal drug transaction that led to the arrest and conviction. The undercover officer who actually engaged in the drug sale and the…