Opinion
December 3, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (John Bradley, J.).
The court properly denied defendant's motion to sever the drug counts from the homicide and weapon possession counts, and properly allowed the People to introduce evidence of defendant's drug selling activities and of the drugs discovered in his apartment pursuant to a search warrant. The drug evidence, when linked with defendant's otherwise unexplained threatening statements made shortly before the crime, established motive and murderous intent (see, People v. Zorilla, 211 A.D.2d 582). We have considered and rejected defendant's remaining arguments on this subject.
The court properly denied defendant's request for submission of the lesser included offense of manslaughter in the first degree, since there was no reasonable view of the evidence which supported a finding that the defendant intended only to cause serious physical injury to the victim (see, People v. Kelly, 221 A.D.2d 661, lv denied 87 N.Y.2d 974, cert denied 517 U.S. 1200).
Concur — Sullivan, J. P., Milonas, Tom and Mazzarelli, JJ.