People v. Fabre

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Jill Konviser, J.), rendered February 28, 2014, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of robbery in the second degree and criminal impersonation in the first degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to an aggregate term of 11 years, with five years’ postrelease supervision, unanimously modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, to the extent of reducing the prison term for the robbery conviction to eight years, and otherwise affirmed. Defendant’s legal sufficiency claim is unpreserved, and we decline to review it in the interest of justice. As an alternative holding, we reject it on the merits. The conduct of defendant and his codefendants, during an incident where they detained the victims while impersonating police officers, satisfied the element of force under the principles set forth in People v Smith (22 NY3d 1092 [2014]). We find the sentence excessive to the extent indicated. Concur — Sweeny, J.P., Renwick, Andrias, Kahn and Gesmer, JJ.