People v. Almestica

Chief Judge Breitel.

The People appeal from orders of the Appellate Division which reversed, on the law alone, defendants’ joint convictions, after trial without jury, of robbery in the first degree and burglary in the first degree, and remanded the cases for new trials.

The issue is one of harmless error. At trial, evidence obtained during an unlawful search was improperly admitted. But, also at trial, defendants, and two others also convicted but not before this court, were implicated by the victim’s compelling and convincing testimony, testimony completely independent of and not tainted by…