People State New York v. Wilfredo Ortiz

Appeal by defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Deeley, J.), rendered March 6, 1980, convicting him of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence. Judgment affirmed. In that portion of its charge as to reasonable doubt, the trial court referred to establishing guilt to a ""moral certainty"", as well as to wavering minds and even scales. Such language was improper (People v Cousart, 74 A.D.2d 877; People v McCray, 57 A.D.2d 632). No exception was taken, however, and examination of the entire charge indicates that the concept of reasonable doubt was correctly explained to the jury (People v Turrell, 66 A.D.2d 862, affd 50 N.Y.2d 400; People v Patterson, 76 A.D.2d 891; People v Woods, 41 N.Y.2d 279, 283). We have reviewed defendant's other contentions and find them to be without merit.