People v. Warren O.

Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Leahy, J.), rendered March 20, 1980, adjudicating him a youthful offender upon his conviction of robbery in the first degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment reversed, on the law, and new trial ordered. No issue has been presented with respect to the facts upon which the judgment is based. Defendant’s right to a public trial was violated when the trial court excluded all spectators from the courtroom, except defendant’s mother and an unidentified man, on the prosecutor’s representation that he “might…