People State New York v. Salvatore Gallina

Defendant Salvatore Gallina appeals from a judgment convicting him, following a jury trial, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree (Penal Law, § 220.41) and imposing an indeterminate sentence of six and one-half years to life imprisonment. He contends that recordings of certain conversations overheard as the result of an eavesdropping warrant should have been suppressed because of a failure to comply with several statutory requisites governing electronic surveillance. In addition, he urges, in the alternative, that since these conversations concerned uncharged criminal conduct they were inadmissible in any event. We agree that the evidence should have been excluded and we, therefore, reverse the judgment of conviction.