IN THIS CONSTRUCTIVE POSSESSION CASE, THE INVESTIGATOR’S ASKING DEFENDANT WHERE HE RESIDED WAS DESIGNED TO ELICIT AN INCRIMINATING RESPONSE, THEREFORE DEFENDANT’S RESPONSE WAS NOT PEDIGREE INFORMATION AND A CPL 710.30 NOTICE WAS REQUIRED, ADMISSION OF THE STATEMENT WAS HARMLESS ERROR HOWEVER (FOURTH DEPT).

The Fourth Department determined the defendant’s answer to the investigator’s asking where defendant resided, for which no CPL 710.30 notice was provided, was not pedigree information and should not have been admitted in evidence. The drug-possession charge was founded on constructive possession. Therefore asking defendant where he resided was designed to elicit an incriminating response. The error was deemed harmless however:

Defendant also contends that the court erred in admitting in evidence an oral statement of defendant regarding his address for which no CPL 710.30 notice had been given. The statement at issue was defendant’s response to a question about where he resided, and it was made to one of the principal investigators, who had executed a search warrant at the home of defendant’s parents. As the People correctly concede, defendant’s statement regarding his address was not pedigree information for which no CPL 710.30 notice was required … because, under the circumstances of this case, the investigator’s question was likely to elicit an incriminating admission and had a “necessary connection to an essential element of [the possessory] crime[] charged” … . The court thus erred in admitting the statement in evidence in the absence of a CPL 710.30 notice … . People v Tucker, 2019 NY Slip Op 05274, Fourth Dept 6-28-19