People v. Thomas

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Ira Beal, J.), rendered January 24, 1989, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree and sentencing him, as a predicate felon, to a term of 4 Vi to 9 years, unanimously reversed, on the law and the facts, and the case remanded for a new trial.

Defendant was convicted of the sale of "crack” cocaine to an undercover police officer on July 1, 1988. He was arrested almost immediately in a "buy and bust” operation. Defendant, a 27 year old man addicted to "crack” cocaine, asserted that he was…