People v. Lastra

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Angela Mazzarrelli, J.) rendered August 17, 1989, convicting defendant after a jury trial of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and sentencing defendant as a second felony offender to an indeterminate term of imprisonment of from 5 to 10 years, unanimously affirmed.

Any possibility that the prosecutor’s summation shifted the burden of proof was negated by the trial court’s subsequent instructions to the jury. Moreover, the summation, when evaluated as a whole, cannot be said to have deprived defendant of his right to a fair…