The Third Department reversed defendant's conviction of the statutory sale of more than one-half ounce of heroin and the related conspiracy conviction (the remaining 15 counts were not reversed). The court determined the evidence of the amount of heroin sold was equivocal:
A statutory sale may be proven by evidence of an offer or agreement to sell drugs, but “the weight of the material must be independently shown” … . Here, no narcotics were recovered by the police, and the proof of the weight of heroin that defendant agreed to procure for [codefendant] Cochran was equivocal; while the amount of 16 grams was discussed, Cochran also stated that he might purchase “something like that” or, because he had limited funds and other expenses, might “get something lower.” As the People correctly argue, the full amount of transferred narcotics need not always be recovered to satisfy the weight requirement when a sale is based upon an offer or an agreement; nevertheless, there must be some form of independent evidence from which the total weight can be extrapolated … . As there was none here, defendant's conviction for criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree is reversed and the corresponding count of the indictment dismissed … . People v Wright, 2016 NY Slip Op 03550, 3rd Dept 5-5-15
CRIMINAL LAW (AMOUNT OF HEROIN ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN SOLD NOT PROVEN, STATUTORY SALE AND RELATED CONSPIRACY COUNTS DISMISSED)/STATUTORY SALE (CRIMINAL LAW, AMOUNT OF HEROIN ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN SOLD NOT PROVEN, STATUTORY SALE AND RELATED CONSPIRACY COUNTS DISMISSED)/WEIGHT OF DRUGS (AMOUNT OF HEROIN ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN SOLD NOT PROVEN, STATUTORY SALE AND RELATED CONSPIRACY COUNTS DISMISSED)