People v. Garcia

—Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Gerald Sheindlin, J.), rendered November 7, 1990, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of *5criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to concurrent terms of from 5 to 10 years, unanimously reversed, on the law, and the matter remanded for a new trial.

The record indicates that an off-the-record, sidebar Sandoval hearing was conducted in defendant’s absence. Since defendant never expressly waived his presence at the…