Opinion
April 25, 2000.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Charles Solomon, J., on severance motion; Micki Scherer, J., at jury trial and sentence), rendered November 7, 1996, convicting defendant of four counts of robbery in the first degree and four counts of robbery in the second degree, and sentencing him to four concurrent terms of 8 1/2 to 17 years concurrent with four concurrent terms of 5 to 15 years, unanimously affirmed.
William McGuire, for respondent.
Steven N. Feinman, for defendant-appellant.
WILLIAMS, J.P., MAZZARELLI, RUBIN, BUCKLEY, FRIEDMAN, JJ.
Defendant's severance motion was properly denied. The four robberies involved a sufficiently unique modus operandi so that the evidence of each was admissible as to the others. Therefore, these counts were properly joined pursuant to CPL 200.20(2)(b) (see, People v. Matthews, 175 A.D.2d 24, affd 79 N.Y.2d 1010), and discretionary severance was not available. In any event, the counts were also properly joined as legally similar pursuant toCPL 200.20(2)(c) , and defendant failed to make a sufficient showing for a discretionary severance pursuant to CPL 200.20(3). We perceive no abuse of sentencing discretion.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.