People v. Valenzuela

—Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Alvin Schlesinger, J.), rendered May 19, 1993, convicting the defendant, after trial by jury, of murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and sentencing him to concurrent terms of 20 years to life and 5 to 15 years, respectively, unanimously affirmed.

A defendant has the right to be present at any material stage of the trial (People v Velasco, 77 NY2d 469). If an in camera conference, which took place after the threat made by defendant to the People’s witness, was for the purpose of eliciting "the witness’s…