People v. Branch

Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Goldstein, J.), rendered June 20,1977, convicting him of burglary in the third degree and grand larceny in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment reversed, on the law and as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, and new trial ordered. Defendant was deprived of a fair trial due to the trial court’s improper statements to the jury during its charge that (1) a quorum of the 23 grand jurors handed down an indictment in the instant case (see People v Williams, 57 AD2d 876; People v…