Opinion
August 7, 1995
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Demarest, J.).
Ordered that the judgment is reversed, on the law and the facts, and a new trial is ordered.
We find that a new trial is necessary because the prosecutor exercised peremptory challenges in a discriminatory manner (see, Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79) and, under the totality of the circumstances, the proffered explanations for excluding two potential black jurors were pretextual (see, People v Hernandez, 75 N.Y.2d 350, 356, affd 500 U.S. 352; People v Peart, 197 A.D.2d 599, 600).
The reasons advanced by the prosecutor for removing one potential black juror were that the juror was allegedly too old at age 56, unemployed, and gave an answer to a question involving misidentification which the prosecutor "didn't like". Similarly, the prosecutor "didn't like" a second potential black juror because he was allegedly too young at age 24, single, and had an eighteen-month old baby.
The defendant met his burden of establishing that the prosecutor's explanations were pretextual in that she failed to relate her concerns regarding age, employment status, marital status, or parental status to the facts of this case, and failed to indicate how the first potential juror's answer to her question on misidentification was inappropriate (see, People v Allen, 86 N.Y.2d 101; Batson v. Kentucky, supra; People v Williams, 199 A.D.2d 445, 446; compare, United States v. Davis, 871 F.2d 71; People v. Barber, 156 A.D.2d 1022). Accordingly, a new trial is required (see, People v. Peart, supra, at 600; People v. Brown, 193 A.D.2d 611, 612).
We also find that the trial court erred in permitting the People to elicit testimony that the defendant had robbed one of the victims on three prior occasions. The People failed to establish that this evidence was admissible pursuant to People v Molineux ( 168 N.Y. 264) (see also, People v. Robinson, 68 N.Y.2d 541, 547-548; People v. Allweiss, 48 N.Y.2d 40). However, this error was harmless in view of the overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt (see, People v. Crimmins, 36 N.Y.2d 230; People v. Torres, 215 A.D.2d 702).
We have reviewed the defendant's remaining contentions, including his challenge to the admission of a tape of a 911 telephone call into evidence, and find them to be either academic, unpreserved for appellate review, or without merit (see, CPL 470.05; People v. Brown, 80 N.Y.2d 729, 732-735). Mangano, P.J., Thompson, Ritter and Florio, JJ., concur.