People v. Edwards

—Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Dorothy Cropper, J.), rendered June 9, 1999, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of assault in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second violent felony offender, to concurrent terms of 12 years and seven years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

*271The court properly exercised its discretion in admitting evidence of defendant’s gang membership. The expert’s testimony that the gang to which defendant belonged engaged in random ritual slashings by which members earned advancement within…